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IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY: 


©r,  l|e  ^iWital  %tm\\\ 


OP 


MAN'S    CREATION, 


TESTED   BY 


cxtntxixc   mhcotxt^ 


OF   HIS    ORIGIN   AND    ANTIQUITY 


By  JOSEPH  P.  THOMPSON,  D.D.,  LL.D. 


NEW  YORK : 
SAMUEL    R.    WELLS,    PUBLISHER, 

No.  (389  Broadway. 
1870. 


V^ 


Entered,  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1869,  hj 

SAMUEL    E.    WELLS, 

In  the  Clerk's  Office  of  the  District  Court  of  the  United  States  for  the  Southern 

District  of  New  York. 


eiFl  OF 


Davies  &  Kent, 
Sxereotypers  and  Electrotypers, 
183  William  St.,  N.  Y. 


i 


,  ^^ 


TO 

JAMES   D.   DANA,   LL.D., 

3pvofcssot:  in  Yale  CcUcflc, 

w 

AS  A  TRIBUTE  TO  HIS 

EMINENT  ATTAINMENTS   IN   SCIENCE,  AND  IN  GRATEFUL 
■  RECOGNITION  OF  HIS   SERVICES 

IN  ILLUSTRATING  THE 

HAKMONY    OF    TKUTH 

IN  THE  WORKS  AND  THE  WORD  OF  GOD 


i 


IS    INSCRIBED    BY    niS    FRIEND, 

THE  AUTHOR 


PREFACE. 


-♦"•-♦- 


The  question  How  to  adjust  the  facts  of  Science  to  the  Bible?  assumes 
not  only  that  the  Bible  is  a  book  of  divine  authority,  but  that  its 
authority  reaches  over  the  world  of  physical  phenomena  with  which 
Science  is  directly  concerned,  so  that  no  fact  declared  by  Science  can 
be  accepted  as  true  if  it  conflicts  with  any  statement  of  the  Bible. 
The  question  How  to  adjust  the  Bible  to  the  facts  of  Science  ?  assumes 
that  the  Bible  is  constantly  on  trial,  in  respect  of  its  truth  and  its 
divine  authority ;  and  that  in  any  case  of  apparent  conflict,  the  facts 
of  Science  must  take  precedence  of  the  declarations  of  the  Bible. 
Hence,  on  the  one  hand,  the  cry  of  infidelity  is  raised  against  men  of 
Science,  and  on  the  other  the  Bible  is  set  aside,  at  least  in  all  that 
relates  to  the  primeval  history  of  the  world  and  Man,  as  a  book  of 
crude  and  antiquated  traditions.    Either  of  these  modes  of  viewing  the 
relations  of  the  Bible  and  Science  is  incomplete  and  illogical.    The 
true  method  of  phj^sical  Science  keeps  within  its  own  province  of  the 
observation  and  induction  of  facts,  and  will  not  trespass  upon  the 
ground  of  Biblical  criticism  and  interpretation.    A  sound  Theology 
looks  upon  Nature  as  the  handiwork  of  God,  and  while  it  accepts  a 
supernatural  Revelation  upon  evidence  peculiar  to  itself,  it  accepts  also 
every  established  fact  of  the  physical  universe  as  equally  of  divine 
origin  and  authority.    Hence  the  devout  inquirer  after  truth  will  be 
bent, — not  upon  devising  some  compromise  between  Science  and  the 
Bible,  as  presumably  at  variance, — but  upon  ascertaining  the  exact 
facts  of  Nature,  as  a  portion  of  God's  testimony  concerning  Himself, 
and  the  precise  meaning  of  the  Bible  according  to  legitimate  principles 
of  interpretation.    "When  each  class  of  declarations  is  fairly  brought  out 
by  its  own  methods,  if  there  is  a  seeming  discrepancy',  neither  will  be  set 
aside  as  of  inferior  authority,  but  either  some  error  of  observation,  in- 
duction, or  interpretation  will  be  suspected ;  or  while  both  forms  of 
testimony  are  accredited,  the  decision  of  the  case  will  be  held  in  abey- 
ance, until  a  more  advanced  knowledge  shall  reconcile  them  from 
some  higher  plane,  where  the  harmonies  of  all  Science,  physical  and 
metaphysical,  and  of  all  Revelation,  the  secondary  and  the  supernatu- 


VI  PREFACE. 

ral,  sliall  interbleud  witliont  confusion  or  mistake.  It  is  from  this  last 
point  of  view  that  this  book  has  been  written.  It  is  neither  a  book  of 
Science  nor  of  Tlieology,  but  it  aims  to  present  the  latest  results  of 
Science  touching  the  origin  and  antiquity  of  Man,  and  his  place  in  this 
mundane  system,  side  by  side  with  the  account  of  his  creation  and 
functions  in  the  book  of  Genesis,  as  interpreted  by  llie  critical  tests  of 
modern  philology;  and  to  suggest  certain  principles  of  adjustment 
between  the  record  of  Nature  and  the  record  of  the  Bible,  without 
violence  to  the  spirit  of  either. 

The  matter  of  the  volume  was  originally  given  in  a  series  of  Sunday- 
evening  lectures,  largely  extemporaneous  in  form,  and  purposely  pop- 
ular, almost  colloquial,  in  style.  At  the  instance  of  the  publisher,  these 
have  been  prepared  for  the  press  from  the  reports  of  a  competent  and 
careful  phonographer.  No  attempt  has  been  made  to  elaborate  them 
for  scientific  readers,  though  a  few  notes  of  reference  to  authorities  and 
of  ancillary  topics  have  been  added.  The  fourth  lecture,  on  Man's 
Dominion  over  Nature,  is  somewhat  more  labored  than  the  rest, 
having  been  delivered  substantially  to  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Society  in 
Harvard  College,  in  1865.  The  then  recent  death  of  Mr.  Edward 
Everett  naturally  suggested  the  tribute  to  his  memory  as  a  typical 
Slan. 

If  this  little  book  shall  do  anything  to  diffuse  sound  views  of  the  in- 
terpretation of  the  Bible  in  its  allusions  to  the  phenomena  of  Nature, 
and  to  strengthen  the  conviction  that  in  Nature  ?nd  the  Bible  alike 
one  living  and  eternal  God  is  declared  the  creator  and  lord  of  all,  and 
Man  His  image  as  a  spiritual  power  above  Nature,  the  author  will  be 
fully  recompensed  for  the  risk  of  entering  the  lists  as  a  disputant  in  an 
untried  field. 


Having  in  view  always  the  popular  reader,  the  author  has  cited  for- 
eign authorities  from  English  translations,  wherever  these  exist,  or  has 
clothed  their  thoughts  in  English  dress.  Among  American  authors 
he  acknowledges  his  special  indebtedness  to  Professor  James  D. 
Dana,  of  Yale  College,  and  Professor  Arnold  Guyot,  of  the  College 
of  New  Jersey — men  whom  Science  recognizes  among  her  wisest  In- 
terpreters, and  Revelation  among  her  ablest  Defenders. 

Ne'w  York,  September,  1869. 


CONTENTS. 


-4-»-*- 


LECTURE  I. 


The  Outlet  of  Creation  in  Genesis,  9 — Moses  the  Author  of 
Genesis,  11 — Origin  of  the  Universe,  13 — Biblical  Idea  of  Creation, 
15 — Meaning  of  the  Word  Day,  17 — Outline  of  Creation  in  Gene- 
sis, 19 — Ancient  Cosmogonies,  21 — Cosmogony  of  the  Veda,  23 — 
The  Genesis  of  Things  Revealed  by  God,  25 — Outline  of  Creation 
in  Genesis,  27. 

LECTURE  11. 

The  Creation  op  Man,  28 — Harmony  of  Genesis  and  Geology,  29 — 
Man  the  Image  of  God,  33 — Man  the  Head  of  the  Creation,  35. 

LECTURE  IIL 

The  Origin  of  Man,  36 — Progressive  Order  not  Development,  37 — 
Successive  Creations  of  Species,  39 — Progress  by  Spiritual  Power, 
41 — No  Transitional  Forms,  43 — The  Characteristics  of  Man,  45 — 
Man  Distinguished  by  the  Brain,  47 — The  Dignity  of  Man,  49. 

LECTURE  IV. 

]tfAN's  DosnxiON  OVER  NATURE,  51— Man  not  a  Product  of  Nature, 
53 — Serial  Progression  not  Evolution,  55 — No  Links  of  Develop- 
ment, 57 — Man  the  Conqueror  of  Nature,  59 — Man  the  only  In- 
ventor, 61 — Christianity  a  Civilizing  Power,  63 — Laws  of  Nature 
are  God's  Volitions,  67 — Instinct  not  a  Reasoning  Intelligence,  69 
— Consciousness  a  Ground  of  Certainty,  71 — The  Nobility  of  Vir- 
tue, 73 — Edward  Everett,  a  Tj^Dical  Man,  75 — Professor  Owen  on 
Species,  77 — Owen  and  Darwin  Compared,  78 — No  Spontaneous 
(Jeueration,  80— The  Supernatural  the  Highest  Science,  83. 


vni  CONTENTS. 


LECTURE  V. 


The  ANTiQurrT  of  Man,  84 — True  Science  belongs  to  Theology,  85 
— Date  of  the  Pyramids,  86 — Pile-Habitations  of  the  Swiss  Lakes, 
88 — Mounds  and  Peat  in  Germany,  90 — Caution  in  Framing  or 
Receiving  Theories,  93 — Did  the  Human  Race  begin  in  Barbarism  ? 
95 — No  Universal  Stone  Age,  96 — Usher's  Chronology  too  Short, 
99 — Antiquity  of  the  Negro  Race,  101 — Man  at  the  Close  of  the 
Glacial  Period,  103 — Adam  a  Typical  Man,  105 — Man  the  Latest 
and  Highest  Work,  107— Some  Recent  Works  on  Man,  109. 

LECTURE  YL 

The  Sarbath  Made  for  Man-,  111 — The  Glory  of  the  Heavenly 
Host,  113 — Rest,  the  Suspension  of  Creative  Energy,  114 — The 
Origin  of  the  Week,  116 — The  Reason  of  the  Sabbath  Perpetual, 
119— The  Sabbath  a  Sanitary  Provision,  131 — The  Sabbath  for 
Spiritual  Life,  133. 

LECTURE  Vn. 

Woman  and  the  Family,  135 — The  Origin  of  Language,  136 — Mar- 
riage a  Primeval  Institution,  138— Sex  Fundamental  in  Human 
Society,  130— The  Family  Founded  in  Love,  133— Mutual  Adapta- 
tions of  the  Sexes,  134— The  Social  Compact  a  Fiction,  136— 
Woman  more  than  a  Femmehomme,  138 — Woman's  Sex  her  Spir- 
itual Prerogative,  140 — Woman  Disqualified  by  Nature,  143 — 
Woman  Rules  by  Spiritual  Prerogatives,  144— How  to  Elevate  tho 
Poor,  146— The  Biblical  Views  of  God,  148. 


MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 


-♦^>- 


LECTURE    I. 


3tttlinc  0f  U^titiioxx  ixx  mtnt^i^. 


1.  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth. 

2.  And  the  earth  was  without  form,  and  void ;  and  darkness  teas  upon  the  face  of 
the  deep :  and  the  Spirit  of  God  moved  upon  the  face  of  the  waters.  * 

3.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  light:  and  there  was  light. 

4.  And  God  saw  the  light,  that  it  was  good :  and  God  divided  the  light  from  the 
darkness. 

5.  And  God  called  the  light  Day,  and  the  darkness  he  called  Night :  and  the  even- 
ing and  the  morning  were  the  first  daj\ 

6.  And  God  said.  Let  there  be  a  firmament  in  the  midst  of  the  waters ;  and  let  it 
divide  the  waters  from  the  waters. 

7.  And  God  made  the  firmament,  and  divided  the  waters  which  icere  under  the 
firmament  from  the  waters  which  7ce}'e  above  the  firmament :  and  it  was  so. 

8.  And  God  called  the  firmament  Heaven  :  and  the  evening  and  the  morning  were 
the  second  day. 

9.  And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  under  the  heaven  be  gathered  together  unto  one 
place,  and  let  the  dry  land  appear:  and  it  was  so. 

10.  And  God  called  the  dry  la77cl  Earth ;  and  the  gathering  together  of  the  waters 
called  he  Seas :  and  God  saw  that  if  was  good. 

11.  And  God  said.  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  grass,  the  herb  yielding  seed,  and  the 
fruit  tree  yielding  fruit  after  his  kind,  whose  seed  is  in  itself,  upon  the  earth :  and  it 
was  so. 

12.  And  the  earth  brought  forth  grass,  and  herb  yielding  seed  after  his  kind,  and  the 
tree  yielding  fruit,  whose  seed  was  in  itself,  after  his  kind :  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good. 

13.  And  the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  third  day. 

14.  And  God  said,  Let  there  be  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven,  to  divide  the 
day  from  the  night ;  and  let  them  be  for  signs,  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days,  and 
years : 

15.  And  let  them  be  for  lights  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the 
earth :  and  it  was  so. 

16.  And  God  made  two  great  lights ;  the  greater  light  to  rule  the  day,  and  the  lesser 
ight  to  rule  the  night :  he  made  the  stars  also. 

17.  And  God  set  them  in  the  firmament  of  the  heaven  to  give  light  upon  the  earth, 

1* 


10  MAN:  m  GENESIS  AISTD  IN  GEOLOGY. 

IS.  And  to  rule  over  the  day  and  over  the  night,  and  to  divide  the  light  from  the 
darkness:  and  God  saw  that  it  was  good. 

19.  And  the  evening  and  tlie  morning  were  the  fourth  day. 

20.  And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly  the  moving  creature  that 
hath  life,  and  fowl  (hat  may  fly  above  the  earth  in  the  open  firmament  of  heaven. 

21.  And  God  created  great  whales,  and  every  living  creature  that  moveth,  which  the 
waters  Trrought  forth  abu^adantly  aftt^r  their  kind,  and  every  winged  fowl  after  his 
kind:  and  .God  saw  that  fj  t^o-^guod. 

22.  And  God  blessed  them,  sajiug;  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and  fill  the  waters  in 
the  seas,  a?id  let  fowl  mtiltiply  in  the  eariL. 

23.  ,&jii  th'3  evening  an'd.  the  niorjing  were  the  fifth  day. 

24.  And  God  said,  Let  the  earth  bring  forth  the  living  creature  after  his  kind,  cattle, 
and  creeping  thing,  and  beast  cf  the  earth  after  his  kind :  and  it  was  so. 

25.  And  God  made  the  beast  of  the  earth  after  his  kind,  and  cattle  after  their  kind, 
and  everything  that  creepeth  upon  the  .earth  after  his  kind :  and  God  saw  that  it  was 
good. 

We  have  here  one  of  the  oldest  written  documents  in  tlie 
world,  perhaps  the  oldest  written  account  of  the  creation.* 
Tliere  are  monuments  and  even  literary  remains  of  the  Egyp- 
tians and  the  Chinese  that  claim  a  higher  antiquity;  but  these 
are,  for  the  most  part,  dry  details  of  names  and  uumhers,  with 
no  consecutive  narrative  of  events,  or  they  are  myths,  tradi- 
tions, and  religious  rituals  in  the  form  of  poetry.  This  docu- 
ment is  professedly  a  history,  given  in  historical  form,  and  it 
concerns  the  origin  of  Mankind. 

It  is  commonly  ascribed  to  Moses  as  its  author,  either  as 
composer  or  compiler.  Modern  criticism  has  attempted  to 
displace  Moses  from  this  traditional  position,  and  to  substitute 
fbr  him  historians  of  later  date,  perhaps  of  the  time  of  Solo- 
mon, or  even  as  late  as  the  time  of  the  Captivity.  It  is  not 
essential  to  the  authenticity  of  the  record  that  we  should  be 
able  to  fix  definitely  upon  its  author;  but  the  same  proofs  of 
genuineness  exist  in  this  case  as  in  respect  to  the  works  of  He- 
rodotus, Homer,  and  other  writers  of  great  antiquity.    The  pre- 


*  For  the  art  of  writing  among  the  Hebrews  consult  Hengstenberg  on  "  The  Authen 
ticity  of  the  Pentateuch,"  vol.  i.,  p.  344;  Dr.  W.  Smith,  "  The  Book  of  Moses,"  vol.  i. 
p.  13;  Ewald,  "History  of  Israel,"  vol.  i.,  p.  48;  Delitzsch,  '■'■Cmntnentar  iiber  die  Gen 
esis,''  p.  20:  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  the  Bible,"  Art.  "  V/riting;"  Bunsen,  "Egj-pt's 
Place  in  History,"  vol.  i.,  p.  306 ;  also  vol.  iii.,  p.  394,  for  the  origin  of  writing  among 
the  Chinese ;  Rawlinson's  Herodotus,  ii.,  p.  305. 


MOSES  THE  AUTHOR  OF  GENESIS.  H 

Burnption  in  any  such  case  is,  that  the  author  to  ^vhom  a  work 
has  been  ascribed  by  long  and  ahiiost  unbroken  tradition  was 
tlie  real  author;  and  internal  evidences  may  go  to  substan- 
tiate the  antiquity  and  authenticity  of  the  work,  even  if  the 
name  of  the  author  be  left  in  dispute.  The  art  of  writing  was 
certainly  known  in  the  time  of  Moses.  Monuments  of  Egypt 
which  antedate  the  Exodus,  exhibit  abundant  specimens  of 
writing  on  stone,  and  some  papyrus  rolls  still  extant  j^roba- 
bly  date  from  a  higher  antiquity  than  this  book  of  Genesis. 
So  far,  therefore,  as  the  style  of  the  book  as  a  written  compo- 
sition is  concerned,  it  may  have  been  produced  at  the  time  of 
Moses.  Ewald,  the  keenest  of  critics  and  the  most  learned  of 
skeptics  concerning  the  authorship  of  the  Pentateuch  as  a 
whole,  does  not  hesitate  to  ascribe  to  Moses  the  tables  of  the 
Law,  and  the  substantial  groundwork  of  the  system  that 
bears  his  name;  while  to  account  for  the  production  as  a 
whole  he  invents  theories  which  task  credulity  much  more 
severely  than  the  notion  that  it  was  the  single  compila- 
tion of  Moses  himself  Tlie  grand  simplicity  of  style,  and 
the  rough  poetic  strength  in  some  passages  of  these  early 
narratives,  point  to  the  remoteness  of  their  origin.  This 
Ewald  also  concedes — regarding  such  passages  as  the  prim- 
itive materials  around  which  the  composition,  as  a  whole, 
clusters.* 

Some  critics  regard  the  book  of  Genesis  as  a  mi  xed  compo- 
sition, made  up  of  different  documents.  This  notion  is  based 
iipon  diversities  of  style  and  a  marked  difference  in  the  name 

*  Ewald,  "  History  of  Israel,"  says :  "  The  two  stone  tables  of  the  Law  arc,  according 
to  all  evidences  and  arcfumentp,  to  be  ascribed  to  Moses"  (vol.  i.,  p.  48) ;  and  again  : 
"Among  the  long  and  numerous  laws  referred  to  Sinai  in  the  extant  narratives, 
many,  particularly  among  those  relating  to  details,  may  have  sprung  up,  or  at  all  events 
have  assumed  their  present  form,  in  the  next  following  age.  But  those  essential  truths 
and  social  arrangements  which  constitute  the  motive  power  of  the  Mhole  history  must 
certainly  have  been  there  promulgated  and  firmly  ordained."  (P.  530.)  Ewald  assigns 
the  blessing  of  Jacob  and  the  song  of  Lamech  to  a  high  antiquity — the  latter  "  actually 
pre-:Mosaic."    (Vol.  i.,  pp.  70  and  267.) 


12  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

of  God,  as  used  in  separate  sections.  These  are  now  com- 
monly distinguished  as  the  Elohistic  and  the  Jehovistic. 
Such  diversities  do  exist,  and  give  a  plausible  foundation  for 
the  theory  of  separate  authorship.*  The  composer  of  Gene- 
sis, as  we  possess  it,  may  have  worked  up  materials  already 
extant  in  the  form  either  of  oral  traditions  or  of  written  doc- 
uments, and  in  so  doing  he  may  not  have  departed  from  the 
original  structure  of  the  documents  before  him,  nor  attempted 
to  harmonize  their  phraseology  and  contents  except  in  a  gen- 
eral way ;  but,  notwithstanding  these  apparent  diversities,  a 
law  of  unity  pervades  the  whole  book  in  its  leading  concep- 
tion and  its  evident  purpose,  and  this  points  to  an  essential 
unity  of  authorshijD.  The  great  thought  of  the  book  is  to  ex- 
hibit God  in  connection  Avith  the  religious  and  providential 
history  of  mankind,  and  the  evident  purpose  of  the  early  por- 
tion is  to  lay  a  foundation  in  history  for  that  Theocracy  which 
w^as  finally  developed  in  Israel.  Keeping  this  in  mind,  w^e 
find  it  less  difficult  to  trace  harmony  in  the  book  as  a  whole 
than  when  we  confine  ourselves  to  the  niceties  of  literary  crit- 
icism. Indeed,  tlie  moral  unity  seems  quite  to  overbear  the 
apparent  literary  diversities,  and  the  latter  are  scarcely  greater 
than  one  single  author  might  have  indulged  in  while  combin- 
ing several  antecedent  documents  or  traditions  into  one  com- 
prehensive whole.     But  the  critical  niceties  of  this  question 


*  "  Admitting  this  dietinction,  we  may  still  doubt  whether  it  has  not  been  carried 
to  an  unwarrantable  extent.  It  reduces  the  Old  Scriptures  not  only  to  ft-agmcnts, 
but  to  fragments  of  Iragments,  in  most  ill-assorted  and  jumbled  confusion.  Surely'no 
other  book  was  ever  so  composed  or  so  compiled.  In  the  same  portion,  presenting  every 
appearance  of  narrative  unity,  some  critics  find  the  strangest  juxtapositions  of  pas- 
sages from  difierent  authors,  aud  written  at  difierent  times,  according  as  the  one  name 
or  the  other  is  found  in  it.  There  are  the  most  sudden  transitions  even  in  small  par- 
agraphs having  not  only  a  logical  but  a  grammatical  connection.  One  verse,  and  even 
one  clause  of  a  verse,  is  written  by  the  Elohist,  and  another  immediately  following  by 
the  Jehovist,  with  nothing  besides  this  difference  of  names  to  mark  any  difference  in 
purpose  or  in  authorship.  Calling  it  a  compilation  will  not  help  the  absurdity,  for  no 
other  compilation  waa  ever  made  in  this  way."— Z*/-.  Taxjler  Leivis  in  Lange's  "  Gen^- 
He;'  p.  107. 


ORIGIN  OF  THE  UNIVERSE.  13 

can  not  be  popularized,  and  we  assume  as  sufficient  for  our 
purpose  the  substantial  oneness  of  Genesis  as  a  work  of 
Moses.  It  is  more  important  to  trace  the  internal  evidences 
of  the  truth  of  the  narrative  and  its  divine  oriirin. 

The  subject  of  this  first  chapter*  is  the  origin  of  the  exist- 
ino;  order  of  thino-s — the  earth  and  its  inhabitants,  witli  the 
visible  surrounding  heavens.  This  is  one  of  the  profoundest 
subjects  of  human  thought.  It  has  occupied  the  speculations 
of  the  greatest  philosophers  of  ancient  times,  and  the  investiga- 
tions and  theories  of  modern  science  ;  but  neither  philosophy 
nor  science  has  yet  accurately  determined  the  origin  of  t]ie 
universe^  The  method  of  Genesis  is  the  reverse  of  physical 
science.  The  latter,  by  induction,  seeks  after  laws,  principles, 
and  causes;  but  Genesis  beg^ins  Avith,  the,  greaL First  Cause. 
Science  leads  us  back  step  by  step  to  the  necessity  of  an  orig- 
inal cause ;  Genesis,  .sets  that  cause  before  us  directly  in  the 
declaration,  "  In  the  beginning  God  created  the  heaven  and 
the  earth."  If  the  account  given  of  the  creation  in  this  chap- 
ter is  true,  it  must  have  proceeded  from  God.  There  was  no 
human  observer  to  record  it^jmd  the  facts  ju*e  beyond  human 
discovery  even  iii^  the  present  advanced^tage  of  scie.nce.  It 
is  impossible  to  believe  that,  in  the  asce  of  the  world  when 
this  book  was  composed,  and  among  the  2)eople  to  whom  it 
was  first  given,  the  human  mind  sliould  have  been  capable 
of  originating  such  a  description  of  the  universe.  It  was 
communicated  bv  ilUnnination  from  God  to  man.  The  truth 
of  this  Avill  appear  if  we  look  at  it  somewhat  in  detail. 

"  I?i  the  J3eginni7ig!^''  This  describes  a  vague  period  before 
tlie  present  condition  of  tilings  had  an  existence,  before  the 
heaven  and  earth,  as  they  now  are,  began  to  be.  There  is 
here  no  limitation  of  time,  and  therefore  the  expansion  of 
astronomical  and  geological  cons,  cycle  upon  cycle,  finds  here 
the  most  ample  scope.     There  was  time  enough  in  that  *'Be- 


14:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND   IN  GEOLOGY. 

ginning  "  for  the  evolution  of  tlie  entire  solar  system  from  a 
single  nebulous  mass — supposing  that  to  have  been  the  con- 
dition in  which  matter  was  first  produced. 

"  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth  !  "  Did  the  writer 
mean  to  describe  tlie  universe  at  laro-e  and  the  orio-in  of  mat- 
ter?  or  simjjly  our  globe  and  its  visible  firmament,  as  estab- 
lished or  constituted  in  its  existins;  order?  This  can  not  be 
determined  from  the  word  hara^  which  has  the  same  ambi- 
guit}^  as  the  English  word  create ;  but  inasmuch  as  the  suc- 
ceeding verses  are  occupied  with  the  plastic  process  in  detail, 
by  which  crude  chaotic  matter  was  reduced  to  form  and  order," 
we  may  infer  that  by  the  act  of  creation  in  the  first  verse  was 
intended  the  origination  of  matter,  the  first  beginning  of  that 
from  which  the  worlds  were  shaped.  This  is  the  meaning 
]3ut  upon  it  by  the  writer  of  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews : — ■ 
"the  worlds  were  framed  by  .the  Avord  of  God,  so  that  things 
which  are  seen  w^ere  not  made  of  things  which  do  appear."* 
The  objection  that  the  metaphysical  notion  of  creation  ex 
nihilo  is  foreign  to  the  Scriptures,  has  little  v/eight,  since  the 
Hebrew  writer,  impressed  with  the  eternal  self-existence  and 
the  absolute  personality  of  God,  was  declaring  a  fact,  without 
reference  to  a  philosophical  mode  of  conceiving  that  fact. 

As  used  in  the  Bible,  the  word  hara  sometimes  sisjnifies  the 
bringing  into  existence  a  7iew  thing — as,  for  instance,  the  cre- 
ation of  Matter,  of  Life,  and  of  Man — and  sometimes  the  con- 
stituting or  establishing  in  order  that  which  had  already  been 
brought  into  existence  as  to  its  germs  or  essence — in  the  sense 
to  cut,  carve,  or  shape;  but  in  either  case  the  principle  is  the 
same — a  personal  God  giving  existence,  form,  and  order  to 
matter  by  his  own  power  and  will.  Applied  to  the  acts  of 
the  Almighty,  hara  always  denotes  the  giving  existence  to 

■■■  I.,       .,.■■■■■.     .1    -Ml  I.      ■  .1    ^  I ,1  I       ,  ,  ,  I  ..I,.    ,      ,     .       ,  ...        I       ,.,.,l.^ 

♦  Hebrews  xi.  3. 


BIBLICAL  IDEA  OF  CREATION.  15 

somethinG:  neit\^  either  in  substance  or  in  form,  and  the 
bringing  into  being  by  divine  power  is  the  leading  idea  in 
creation.  This  verse  represents  God  as  tlie  primary  cause  of 
the  whole  material  creation  wliich  comes  under  the  observa- 
tion of  our  senses,  and  which  is  comprehensively  described  as 
"the  heaven  and  the  earth." f 

At  first  we  have  a  picture  of  chaos : — matter  in  a  crude; 
formless  condition,  shrouded  in  darkness.  The  first  act  of  the 
divine  will,  represented  as  "the  Spirit  brooding  upon  the 
waters,"  is  the  evolution  of  light.  A  beautiful  experiment  has 
been  invented  to  illustrate  the  possible  formation  of  the  world 
from  a  gaseous  condition,  according  to  the  i^ebul^r  theory. 
In  a  globe  of  water  and  alcohol,  mixed  in  a  nicely  propor- 
tioned density,  is  deposited  a  diminutive  ball  of  oil,  which, 
by  its  relative  specific  gravity,  adjusts  itself  to  the  center  of 
the  fluid  mass.  A  certain  motion  imparted  to  this  by  a  wire 
from  without  gives  it  the  shape  of  our  globe  flattened  at  the 
poles;  another  motion  will  throw  ofl"  the  moon,  or,  if  3'ou 
please,  the  four  moons  of  Jupiter;  again,  Saturn  and  its  rings 
may  be  produced  by  another  rotary  movement ;  and  finally, 
the  whole  mass  broken  up  into  globules  representing  the 
planetary  system  as  it  swims  in  space. 

Our  knowledge  of  the  prodigious  force  of  gases,  and  of  the 
efiects  of  motion  and  electricity  on  a  grand  scale,  may  help 

*  An  important,  passage  for  the  meaning  io  create  out  of  nothing  is  Genesis  ii.  3, 
where,  according  to  Gescnins,  we  read,  "he  rested  froni  all  his  work  which  God  cre- 
ated in  making ;  i.  e.,  which  he  made  in  creating  something  new :  see  also  Jer.  xxxi.  22 ; 
whence  it  is  apparent  that  bara  implies  the  creation  of  something  new,  not  before  ex- 
isting." This  view  is  ably  advocated  by  Dr.  Barrows  in  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra  for 
1856,  p.  743 ;  by  Kallsch,  "  Commentary  on  Genesis ; "'  by  Delitzsch,  "  Commentar  iiber 
die  Genesis,""  and  others ;  but  Dr.  Tayler  Lewis,  in  Lange's  "  Genesis"  (p.  127),  main- 
tains that  the  word  denotes,  not  the  primal  origination,  but  formations,  dispositions, 
of  matter.  Yet  he  adds,  "tliis  is  creation;  it  is  tlic  divine  supernatural  making  of 
sometliing  new,  and  wliich  did  not  exist  before." 

t  Keeping  in  mind  the  Hebrew  conception  of  one,  eternal,  almighty,  self-existent 
God,  the  natural  interpretation  of  bare  would  appear  to  be  the  bringing  something  out 
of  nothing,  although  in  its  strict  metaphysical  form^the  doctrine  of  creation  ex  nihilo 
can  hardly  be  traced  in  the  early  Hebrew  Scriptures. 


16  MAN:   IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

us  to  understand  how,  if  this  Chaos  was  matter  in  a  rare  gas- 
eous state  diffused  in  sjDace,  molecular  motion,  or  a  chemical 
change  evolving  electricity,  may  have  produced  the  light 
here  described,  and  then  motion,  once  set  in  order,  might 
have  given  shape  by  degrees  to  the  earth  and  the  heavenly 
bodies.  As  to  the  process,  however,  all  is  mere  conjecture; 
Genesis  does  not  describe  it, — science  can  not  unfold  it.* 

Here  comes  in  the  term  "Z>«?/."  I  suppose  it  now  to  be 
well  understood  that  neither  this  word  itself,  nor  Biblical 
usage,  nor  the  context  here,  requires  us  to  understand  by  a  Day 
a  period  of  twenty-four  hours.  The  term  is  first  applied  to 
the  appearing  of  light  after  the  darkness  of  chaos.  Chaofs  was 
the  evening,  light  the  morning.  But  vrhen  did  this  darkness 
begin  ?  and  how  long  did  the  light  thus  engendered  continue  ? 
Was  this  merely  a  natural  day  ?  Why  should  we  attempt  to 
measure  this  first  period  by  a  chronometer  which,  according 
to  the  narrative  itself,  could  not  have  come  into  use  until  the 
fourth  day,  when  the  heavenly  bodies  became  visible  from  our 
globe,  so  as  to  serve  for  the  measurement  of  times  and  seasons? 

*  The  nebular  hypothesis  is  thus  stated  by  Prof.  Loomis :  "  Suppose  that  the  matter 
composing  the  entire  solar  system  once  existed  in  the  condition  of  a  single  nebulous 
mass,  extending  beyond  the  orbit  of  the  most  remote  planet.  Suppose  that  this  neb- 
ula has  a  slow  rotation  upon  an  axis,  and  that  by  radiation  it  gradually  cools,  thereby 
contracting  in  its  dimensions.  As  it  contracts  in  its  dimensions,  its  velocity  of  rota- 
tion, according  to  the  principles  of  Mechanics,  must  htcessarily  increase,  and  the 
centrifugal  force  thus  generated  in  the  exterior  portion  of  the  nebula  woujd  at  length 
become  equal  to  the  attraction  of  the  central  mass.  This  exterior  portion  would  thus 
become  detached,  and  revolve  independently  as  an  immense  zone  or  ring.  As 
the  central  mass  continued  to  cool  and  contract  in  its  dimensions,  other  zones 
would  in  the  same  manner  become  detached,  while  the  central  mass  continually  de- 
creases in  size  and  increases  in  density.  The  zones  thus  successively  detached  would 
generally  break  up  into  separate  masses,  revolving  independently  about  the  sun ;  and 
if  their  velocities  were  slightly  unequal,  the  matter  of  each  zone  would  ultimately  col- 
lect in  a  single  planetary  but  still  gaseous  mass,  having  a  spheroidal  form,  and  also  a 
motion  of  rotation  about  an  axis.  As  each  of  these  planetary  masses  becomes  still 
further  cooled,  it  would  pass  through  a  succession  of  changes  similar  to  those  of  the 
first  solar  nel)ula ;  rings  of  matter  would  be  formed  surrounding  the  planetary  nucleus, 
and  those  rings,  if  thoy  bi-oke  up  into  separate  masses,  would  ultimately  form  satel- 
lites revolving  about  their  primaries This  hypothesis  must  be  regarded  as  pos- 
sessing considerable  probability,  since  it  accounts  for  a  large  number  of  phenomeua 
which  hitherto  had  remained  unexplained."— Trea^i^e  &>i  Astronomy,  p.  314. 


MEANING  OF  THE  WORD  DAY.  17 

In  the  fourth  verse  of  the  second  chapter  we  liave  an  exam- 
ple of  the  use  of  this  word  "  Day  "  to  cover  the  whole  period 
of  operations  included  in  the  seven  days  of  the  first  chapter : 
"These  are  the  generations  of  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
when  they  were  created,  in  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  made 
the  earth  and  the  heavens."  Here  the  whole  term  of  creation 
is  comprehended  within  one  day.  Affain:j;ve  are  told  that 
"  one  day  isjw^ith  the  Lordas  a  thousand  years,  and  a  thou^ 
sand  years  as  one  day."  *  In  short,  the  word  is  used  in  the 
Scriptures  to  describe  an~event  or  period  which  had  a  begin- 
ning and  a  completion.  Lest  any  should  suppose  that  this 
interpretation  of  the  word  Day  is  a  modern  invention  to 
accommodate  the  narrative  in  Genesis  to  the  discoveries  of 
Geology,  or  to  evade  the  objections  of  science  to  this  record, 
let  me  remind  you  that  Augustine,  in  the  fourth  century,  by 
the  simple  principles  of  interpretation,  called  these  "  ineffable 
days,"  describing  them  as  alternate  births  and  pauses  in  the 
work  of  the  Almighty — the  boundaries  of  periods  in  the  vast 
evolution  of  the  worlds. f  And  such  was  the  earlier  Christian 
interpretation  of  this  narrative.  The  notion  that  these  were 
literal  days  of  twenty-four  hours  seems  rather  to  have  sprung 
up  in  the  middle  ages,  an  offspring  of  that  literalism  and 
realism  which  in  times  of  ignorance  have  often  perverted  the 
meaning  of  the  Scriptures. 

It  has  been  objected  to  this  narrative,  that  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars  did  not  appear  until  the  fourth  day,  whereas  the 
growth  of  vegetation  requires  the  action  of  light,  and  the 
light  of  certain  stars  requires  to  travel  for  ages  before  reach- 
ing an  observer  on  our  earth ;  and  therefore  there  must  have 
been  light  from  the  heavenly  bodies  during  the  period  of 
vegetable  growth  described  as  the  third  day,  and  the  stars 

♦  3  Peter  iii.  8.  t  "  2?e  Gtywsi  ad  LiUramr 


18  MAN:   IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

must  have  existed  for  ages  before,  in  order  that  their  light 
nii2:ht  at  this  time  have  become  visible.  But  there  is  in  all 
this  no  conflict  with  the  account  in  Genesis,  if  we  remember 
that  the  language  of  this  narrative  is  popular  and  not  scien- 
tific. The  description  is  optical  or  j^henomenal,  that  is,  of 
things  as  they  would  have  appeared,  or  may  be  imagined  to 
have  appeared,  to  a  human  observer,  could  one  then  have 
been  stationed  on  the  earth.  Vegetation  of  course  required 
light,  and  the  existence  of  light  has  already  been  announced 
from  the  first  day.  There  was  cosmical  light  even  when  the 
shining  of  the  sun  and  other  heavenly  bodies  was  not  appar- 
ent. Let  us  suppose  a  human  observer  (though  we  well 
know  that  man  could  not  have  existed  in  that  primitive  con- 
dition of  the  globe)  to  have  been  stationed  on  the  earth 
during  the  period  of  the  vegetation  which  produced  the  coal 
deposits — when  the  globe  was  wrapped  in  dense  steaming 
mists.  The  sun  would  have  been  no  more  visible  than 
through  a  London  fog !  If  after  a  long  experience  of  this 
condition  of  the  earth  and  its  atmosphere  the  observer  had 
seen  these  mists  rolling  away,  the  atmosphere  gradually 
clearing  \i]),  the  light  beginning  to  break  in  from  above — his 
first  glimpse  of  the  sun  shining  in  the  distant  heavens  would 
appear  to  him  as  a  new  creation,  and  in  optical  or  popular  lan- 
guage he  would  properly  describe  the  sun,  the  moon,  the  stars, 
then  first  made  visible,  as  created  upon  that  day. 

How  was  this  language  understood  by  those  to  whom 
it  was  originally  addressed  ?  By  disregarding  that  principle 
of  interpretation  which  seeks  the  meaning  of  an  author  in 
the  familiar  conceptions  of  his  own  age,  and  forcing  upon  his 
words  ideas  derived  from  later  discoveries  and  other  modes 
of  thought,  great  violence  has  been  done  to  the  text  and  teach- 
ing of  Moses.  "  The  great  majority  of  readers,"  says  Max  Mul- 
ler,  "  transfer  without  hesitation  the  ideas  which  they  connect 


OUTLINE   OF  CREATION  IN  GENESIS.  19 

with  words  as  used  in  the  nineteenth  century  to  the  mind  of 
Moses  or  his  contemporaries,  forgetting  altogetlicr  the  distance 
which  divides  their  lano-uao-e  and  their  thouGjht  from  tho 
thoughts  and  hmguage  of  the  wandering  tribes  of  Israel."* 

Without  going  further  into  details,  it  is  enough  to  say  that  a 
principle  of  order  and  of  j^rogress  runs  through  the  narrative, 
v.'hose  main  features  correspond  wonderfully  with  the  best 
results  of  Geology.  We  must  bear  in  mind  that  Geology,  one 
of  the  newest  of  sciences,  has  already  many  times  changed  its 
own  theories  of  the  order  and  method  of  the  structure  of  our 
globe ;  but  that  order  which  is  now  generally  accepted  by  the 
most  accomplished  geologists — of  whom  Guyot,  Dana,  and 
Agassiz  may  be  taken  as  types — is  substantially  as  follows : — 
that  the  first  movement  toward  the  present  condition  of  things 
was  the  beginning  of  activity  in  matter,  as  this  was  already 
difi'used  in  a  chaotic,  perhaps  a  gaseous,  state.  This  activity 
was  attended  with  the  evolution  of  light.  Next,  the  earth 
was  divided  from  the  fluid  that  surrounded  it,  and  assumed  a 
condition  of  solidity.  Next,  its  features  began  to  appear  in 
outline;  then  vegetable  life,  characterized  in  Gen.  i.  11  as 
"having  seed  in  itself,"  organic  matter  in  distinction  from 
inorganic  substances  of  which  the  earth  was  previously 
composed.  Fourth,  there  came  in  light  from  the  sun,  having 
reference  to  higher  sj^stems  of  life,  then  about  to  appear  upon 
the  globe.  Fifth,  the  lower  orders  of  animals  were  introduced 
in  a  successive  series,  and  finally  appeared  the  mammals — 
and  man,  the  crown  and  end  of  the  whole.  This  outline, 
sketched  by  science,  is  in  remarkable  correspondence  with  that 
given  in  the  first  chaj^ter  of  Genesis;  for  vrhat  we  have  in 
Genesis  is  simply  an  outline.  The  writer  does  not  give  the 
processes  of  creation,  but  the  succession  of  phenomena,  and 


*  "  Chips  from  a  German  Workshop,"  i.,  p.  133. 


20  MAN:  m  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

his  object  at  every  step  is  to  exhibit  the  power  of  God.  Each 
central  thought,  each  advancing  step  in  the  series,  is  brought 
out  with  simplicity  and  boldness  to  illustrate  the  glory  of  the 
Creator. 

How  came  the  writer  of  this  account  by  such  a  doctrine  of 
the  origin  of  things  ?  Here  is  a  phenomenon  in  literature,  in 
the  history  of  the  human  mind,  that  the  skeptic  must  account 
for.  Moses  knew  nothing  of  Geology;  perhaps  he  did  not 
even  apprehend  the  full  meaning  of  that  which  he  recorded 
as  a  vision  of  the  six  days.  How  came  it  to  j)ass  that,  in 
that  far  antiquity,  he  laid  down  a  basis  of  the  creation  which 
is  in  such  wondrous  harmony  with  that  which  science  now 
reveals?  Compare  this  narrative  with  the  cosmogonies  of 
the  leading  nations  of  antiquity.  There  are  certain  general 
points  of  resemblance  which  only  render  more  striking  and 
impressive  the  characteristic  features  in  which  this  differs 
from  those.  For  instance,  the  cosmogony  of  the  Baby- 
lonians rejoresents  the  beginning  of  things  as  in  darkness 
and  water,  where  nondescript  animals,  hideous  monsters, 
half-men  and  half-beasts,  appeared,  and  after  this,  a  woman — 
who  personates  the  creative  siDirit  or  principle — was  split  into 
two  parts,  and  the  heaven  and  the  earth  j^roduced  by  the 
division.  Then  Belus,  the  supreme  divinity,  cut  off  his  own 
head,  and  his  blood  trickling  down  and  mingling  with  the 
dust  of  the  earth,  produced  human  creatures  having  intelli- 
gence and  spiritual  life.  According  to  the  Phoenician 
cosmogony,  that  which  first  appeared  was  an  ether  or  a  mist 
diffused  in  space.  Then  arose  the  wind,  the  representative 
of  motion,  and  from  this  agitation  proceeded  a  spiritual  God, 
from  whom  again  in  turn  proceeded  an  egg — which  is  so 
common  a  feature  of  the  cosmogonies  of  antiquity — the 
division  of  which,  as  in  the  case  of  the  woman,  produced  the 
heavens  and  the  earth.    The  noise  of  thunder  awakened 


ANCIENT  COSMOGONIES.  21 

beings  into  spiritual  life.  The  Egyptian  cosmogony  was  in 
general  harmony  with  the  Phccnician.  Its  princi2)al  divinity 
was  Ptah,  the  world-creating  power,  who  shaped  the  cosmic 
egg,  wliich  again  appears  here,  as  in  the  Phcenician.  There 
followed  from  Ptah  a  long  succession  of  gods,  with  various 
offices  and  powers — solar,  telluric,  psychical — from  whom  at 
length  proceeded  demigods,  and  from  these  again  heroes, 
until  the  link  of  our  common  humanity  was  established. 

The  bare  statement  of  these  systems  must  convince  one 
that  Moses  borrowed  nothing  from  them,  though  he  was 
probably  familiar  with  their  common  conception  of  the  origin 
of  the  universe ;  and  the  question  remains.  How  Avas  it  that 
he  avoided  their  errors  and  extravagances,  and  gave  with 
such  severe  simplicity  a  description  of  the  creation,  which, 
for  popular  uses,  no  rhetoric  could  improve  and  no  science 
can  gainsay  ?  It  will  not  meet  this  question  to  bring  down 
the  date  of  the  composition  of  Genesis,  as  Ewald  proposes, 
to  the  time  of  Solomon,  for  the  physical  history  of  the  globe 
as  now  deciphered  by  Geology  was  not  comprehended  in  the 
wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  the  record  that  lay  hidden  in  the 
rocks  was  no  more  suspected  then  than  Avhen  Moses  wandered 
in  the  rocky  wilderness  of  Sinai.  Besides,  at  that  period, 
we  find  no  improvement  in  the  prevalent  conception  of  the 
origin  of  the  universe;  but  comparing  the  narrative  in  Gen- 
esis with  the  cosmogony  of  Homer  and  Ilesiod,  are  still 
compelled  to  ask.  Whence  came  that  unique,  exact,  sublime 
account  of  the  creation  contained  in  this  book  ? 

According  to  Grote,  "the  mythical  world  of  the  Greeks 
opens  with  the  gods,  anterior  as  well  as  superior  to  man  ;  it 
gradually  descends,  first  to  heroes,  and  next  to  the  human 
race.  Along  with  the  gods  are  found  various  monstrous 
natures,  ultra-human  and  extra-human,  who  can  not  with 
propriety  be  called  gods,  but  who  partake  with  gods   and 


22  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

man  in  the  attributes  of  free-will,  conscious  agency,  and 
susceptibility  of  pleasure  and  pain — such  as  the  Harpies,  the 
Gorgons,  the  Sirens,  the  Sphinx,  the  Cyclops,  the  Centaurs, 
etc."  *  After  violent  contests  amons;  these  2;io;antic  creatures 
and  forces,  there  arises  a  stable  government  of  Zeus,  the 
chief  among  the  gods.  First.jippears  Chaos,  then  the  broad, 
firm,  flat  Earth,  with  deep  and  dark  Tartarus  below,  and 
from  these  proceed  various  divinities  and  creatures,  some 
grand  and  terrible,  some  simply  monstrous ;  their  relations 
to  each  other  violate  all  notions  of  decency  and  morality ; 
their  wars  and  slaughters,  their  gross  and  abominable  crimes, 
issue  in  successive  creative  products  upon  the  earth,  which 
terminate  at  last  in  tlie  appearing  of  man.  We  can  not 
suffer  tlie  mythology  of  the  Greeks  to  be  read  in  our  schools, 
except  in  expurgated  editions ;  and  although  at  the  original 
basis  of  this  was  much  poetic  beauty  of  conception  and  even 
a  sublime  spirituality  of  thought,  the  representatioh  in  the 
concrete  is  so  gross  and  offensive,  and  the  details  are  so 
contrary  to  the  known  facts  of  science,  that  both  our  moral 
sense  and  our  intelligence  repudiate  it  as  an  account  of  the 
origin  of  the  world  and  of  man. 

In  like  manner,  should  we  analyze  the  co'smogonies  of  all 
antiquity,  we  should  find  in  them  certain  elements  of  spiritual 
thought,  grand  and  imposing,  an  approximation  to  the  truth 
as  the  highest  religion  and  pliilosophy  nov/  give  it,  but 
intermingled  witli  this  much  that  is  puerile,  grotesque,  absurd 

* 

or  gross — the  intervention  of  the  egg,  of  the  tortoise,  of  the 
elephant,  of  a  variety  of  mundane  or  monstrous  creatures  and 
powers  in  evolving  the  principles  of  nature.  The  defect  of 
all  these  systems  is,  that  in  attempting  to  describe  the  process 
of  creation,  first,  inetaphysically,  tliey  introduce  some  defec- 

*  "History  of  Greece,"  vol.  i.,  chap  1. 


COSMOGONY  OF  THE  VEDA.  23 

tive  and  even  repulsive  conception  of  the  Deity  and  of  the 
spiritual  Avorld ;  and  next  that,  physically^  they  contravene 
the  simplest  facts  of  science.  How  came  it  to  pass,  then,  I 
repeat,  that  the  writer  or  compiler  of  this  narrative  in  Gen- 
esis, confessedly  one  of  the  most  ancient  cosmogonies  of  the 
world,  himself  familiar  with  the  cosmogony  of  Egypt,  and 
probably  with  those  of  Pha?nicia  and  of  other  nations  farther 
East,  wrote  an  account  which  is  not  only  entirely  free  from 
the  frivolous,  absurd,  and  monstrous  representations  of 
parallel  cosmogonies,  but  is  in  essential  accord  Avith  the 
discoveries  and  developments  of  modern  science  ?  and  that 
throughout  he  holds  the  thought  steadily  to  the  conception 
of  one  supreme,  absolute,  eternal,  spiritual  Creator  ?  In  its 
clear  and  positive  conception  of  God  as  the  creator,  this 
Mosaic  cosmogony  far  surpasses  the  sublime  but  mystic  hymn 
of  the  Yeda  upon  the  same  theme — one  of  the  earliest  relics 
of  Hindu  thought  and  devotion. 

"  Nor  Auglit  nor  Naiiglit  existed ;  yon  bright  sky- 
Was  not,  nor  heaven's  broad  woof  outstretched  above. 
WhAt  covered  all?  what  sheltered?  what  concealed? 
Was  it  the  water's  fathomless  abyss  ? 
There  was  not  death — yet  was  there  naught  immortal ; 
There  was  no  confine  betwixt  day  and  night ; 
The  only  One  breathed  breathless  by  itself; 
Other  than  It  there  nothing  since  has  been. 
Darkness  there  was,  and  all  at  first  was  veiled 
In  gloom  profound — an  ocean  without  light. 
The  germ  that  still  lay  covered  in  the  husk 
Biu'st  forth,  one  nature,  from  the  fervent  heat. 
Then  first  came  love  upon  it,  the  new  spring 
Of  mind — j'-ea,  poets  in  their  hearts  discerned, 
Pondering,  this  bond  between  created  things 
And  uncreated.     Comes  this  spark  from  earth 
Piercing  and  all-pervading,  or  from  heaven  ? 
Then  seeds  were  sown,  and  might}'"  powers  arose— 
Nature  below,  and  power  and  will  above. 
Who  knows  the  secret  ?  who  proclaimed  it  here, 
Whence,  whence  this  manifold  creation  sprang  ? 


24:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

The  gods  themselves  came  later  into  being. 

Who  knows  from  whence  this  great  creation  sprang  ? 

He  from  whom  all  this  great  creation  came, 

Whether  his  will  created  or  was  mute, 

The  Most  High  Seer  that  is  in  highest  heaven. 

He  knows  it — or  j)erchance  even  He  knows  it  not."  * 

This  passage,  tliougli  free  from  grotesque  and  absurd  com- 
binations of  the  spiritual  and  the  material,  is  pantheistic 
throughout,  and  while  it  places  the  nianifoldness  of  the 
material  creation  before  the  creation  of  spiritual  powers,  it 
liardly  concedes  to  "  the  One,"  "  the  IT  "  whose  breath  inter- 
penetrates all  existence,  a  consciousness  of  the  beginning  of 
the  creation  that  somehow  proceeded  from  Itself  Contrast 
with  this  the  conception  of  the  j^ersonal  Creator  and  the 
description  of  His  w^ork  with  Avhich  Genesis  opens.  Think 
how  much  is  asserted  in  the  very  first  sentence  of  this  book. 
"  It  assumes,"  says  Dr.  Murphy,  "  the  existence  of  God,  for 
it  is  He  who  in  the  be2:inninQ:  creates.  It  assumes  His 
eternity,  for  He  is  before  all  things ;  and  as  nothing  comes 
from  nothing.  He  himself  must  have  alw^ays  been.  It  implies 
His  omnipotence,  for  He  creates  the  universe  of  things.  It 
implies  His  absolute  freedom,  for  He  begins  a  new  course  of 
action.  It  implies  His  infinite  wisdom ;  for  a  kosmos,  an 
order  of  matter  and  mind,  can  only  come  from  a  being  of 
absolute  intelligence.  It  implies  His  essential  goodness,  for 
the  Sole,  Eternal,  Almighty,  All-^vise,  and  All-sufiicient  Being 
has  no  reason,  no  motive,  and  capacity  for  evil.  It  presumes 
Him  to  be  beyond  all  limit  of  time  and  place,  as  He  is  before 
all  time  and  place.  *         *         ♦         ^j:         *         *         * 

This  simple  sentence  denies  atheism;  for  it  assumes  the 
being  of  God.  It  denies  polytheism,  and,  among  its  various 
forms,  the  doctrine  of  two  eternal  principles,  the  one  good 

*  The  Rig-Yeda,  Book  X.,  Hymn  129;  translated  in  Max  MuUer's  "Chips  from  a 
German  Workshop,"  vol.  i.,  p.  76. 


THE  GENESIS  OF  THINGS  KEVEALED  BY  GOD.       25 

and  the  other  evil ;  for  it  confesses  the  one  Eternal  Creator. 
It  denies  materialism,  for  it  asserts  the  creation  of  matter.  It 
denies  pantheism,  for  it  assumes  the  existence  of  God  before 
all  things,  and  apart  from  them.  It  denies  fatalism,  for  it 
involves  the  freedom  of  the  eternal  being."  * 

Again  I  call  upon  the  skeptic  to  answer,  Whence  came  this 
sublime  conception  of  God,  which  has  never  been  exceeded 
by  any  philosophy  since  ?  Whence  this  wondrously  true  and 
accurate  outline  of  the  course  of  creation,  in  an  age  of  the 
world  when  there  was  no  philosophy  nor  science  equal  to 
such  conceptions  and  discoveries — in  an  age  when  all  the 
wisdom  of  the  w^orld  upon  such  matters  has  shown  itself  to 
have  been  utterly  and  hopelessly  at  fault  ?  Whence  came 
this  account  of  the  creation  but  from  God  himself,  by  direct 
communication  to  man  ? 

If  it  be  asked  hoAV  such  a  communication  was  made,  we 
can  answer  only  by  conjecture.  A  probable  conjecture  is, 
that  what  here  is  given  in  narrative  passed  before  the  mind 
of  the  original  narrator  in  a  series  of  retrosj^ective  visions ; 
that  it  was  a  panoramic  optical  presentation ;  as  in  a  prophetic 
vision,  future  events  are  made  to  pass  before  the  mind  in  a 
scenic  form.  As,  for  instance,  the  grand  series  of  events  de- 
scribed by  John  in  the  Apocalypse  moved  before  him  iu  a 
succession  of  visions,  so  this  series  of  phenomena  in  the  course 
of  creation  may  have  been  pictorially  represented  to  the 
mind  of  the  historian  in  the  inverted  order  of  prophecy,  and 
at  each  shifting  of  the  scene  appeared  the  hand  of  God ! 

Moses  has  not  attempted  to  teach  astronomy  or  geology, 
nor  to  anticipate  the  deductions  of  any  science,  physical  or 
metaphysical.  But  he  has  here  laid  down  the  first  funda- 
mental truth  in  all  theology — a  personal  Creator:  "In  the 

II    ■!    I  I.     MIBI        ■■      ■  - -  „, 

♦  "  Commentary  b'n  GcneEie,"  i,  1. 


26  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

beo-inninsf  God  created  the  heaven  and  the  earth."  The  ex- 
istence  cf  God  is  assumed,  yet  the  universe  here  contem- 
plated as  the  work  of  creative  intelligence  becomes  a  con- 
vincino;  aro^uraent  for  the  being:  of  God.  Can  a  man  walk 
this  earth  so  manifestly  prepared  for  his  abode,  enjoy  its 
beauties,  appropriate  its  uses,  analyze  its  mysteries,  and  not 
feel  that  there  is  a  God?  Can  a  man  look  upon  these 
heavens,  measure  the  distance,  the  density,  the  capacity  of 
each  star,  j^rescribe  the  motions  of  the  planets,  and  summon 
to  light  new  worlds  to  explain  the  aberrations  of  the  old,  and 
not  feel  that  there  is  a  hand  divine  that  binds  the  sweet  in- 
fluences of  Pleiades  and  looses  the  bands  of  Orion,  that 
brings  forth  Mazzaroth  in  his  season,  and  guides  Arcturus 
with  his  sons  ? 

Shall  a  man  look  upon  himself,  and  behold  how  fearfully 
and  wonderfully  he  is  made,  and  not  know  that  he  is  God's 
workmanship?  Shall  he  make  a  watch,  and  not  perceive 
that  a  superior  intelligence  must  have  made  the  delicate 
organ  that  keeps  time  within  his  o^\^n  breast  ?  Shall  he 
make  a  telescope,  and  not  perceive  how  much  higher  skill 
was  requisite  to  make  the  eye  which  he  so  rudely  imitates, 
and  without  which  his  telescope  would  be  a  worthless  tube 
of  tin  ?  Shall  he  imagine  that  matter  has  done  for  itself 
what  he  with  all  his  intelligence  and  ingenuity  can  not  do 
with  matter  ?  Shall  he  bring  down  light  from  the  stars,  and 
not  see  that  it  is  God'^s  light  ? 

Or  shall  he  look  Avithin  himself?  Shall  the  thinking  I,  the 
living  soul,  which  knows  that  it  is  not  self-existent,  that  it  has 
not  existed  from  eternity,  shall  that  soul  ask  itself  whence  it 
came,  and  not  feel  the  spontaneous,  glowing  response,  "  I  am 
the  ofispring  of  God  ?  "  How  can  a  man  be  an  atheist  ?  be  an 
atheist,  and  yet  be  a  man  ?  Can  he  know  himself  and  not 
know  God  ?     God  is  seen  and  felt  in  all  His  works,  whether 


OUTLINE  OF  CREATION  IN  GENESIS.  27 

man  will  see  Him  or  no.  We  have  no  need  to  say,  "  Oh,  that 
I  knew  where  I  might  find  ITini !"  If  we  feel  after  Him,  we 
shall  surely  find  Him,  "  seeing  He  is  not  far  from  every  one  of 
ns — for  in  Him  we  live,  and  move,  and  have  our  being." 
"  The  fool  hath  said  in  his  heart.  There  is  no  God." 

We  wander  back  in  quest  of  the  origin  of  our  race  and  of 
the  world  we  inhabit,  till  we  meet  this  sublime  declaration, 
In  the  heginning^  God.  We  traverse  the  whole  field  of  specu- 
lative philosophy,  and  reach  the  same  sublime  result.  In  the 
beginning,  God.  We  roam  through  the  interminable  ages 
and  cycles  of  ages  in  the  eras  of  geology,  and  the  weary 
mind  comes  at  length  to  the  same  terminus,  In  the  heginning, 
God.  We  take  the  nebular  theory,  and  melt  down  the  earth 
to  a  fluid  mass,  and  evaj^orate  this  into  the  thinnest  ether  dif- 
fused in  space,  and  requiring  age  upon  age  of  motion  to  give 
it  solidity  and  form ;  we  ask  whence  came  the  ether  ?  Ix 
THE  BEGixisiNG,  GoD.  Everywhere  it  is  written.  There  is  a 
God — a  living  God,  a  personal  God,  a  present  God.  Can 
there  be  a  higher  object  of  thought  than  to  know  such  a 
God  ?  Can  there  be  a  higher  privilege  of  love  than  to  know 
God  as  a  friend  ? 


LECTUEE    II. 


^     ^  "^ 

26.  And  God  said,  Let  us  make  man  in  our  image,  after  our  likeness :  and  let  them 
have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  eea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cat- 
tle, and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that  creepeth  iipon  the  earth. 

27.  So  God  created  man  in  his  0W7i  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created  he  him ;  male 
and  female  created  he  them. 

28.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fmitful,  and  multiply,  and 
replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it :  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

29.  And  God  said,  Behold,  I  have  given  you  every  herb  bearing  seed,  which  is  upon 
the  face  of  all  the  earth,  and  every  tree,  in  the  which  is  the  fruit  of  a  tree  yielding  seed ; 
to  you  it  shall  be  for  meat. 

30.  And  to  every  beast  of  the  earth,  and  to  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  to  every  thing 
that  creepeth  upon  the  earth,  wherein  there  is  life,  I  have  given  every  green  herb  for 
meat :  and  it  was  so. 

.31.  And  God  saw  every  thing  that  he  had  made,  and,  behold,  it  was  very  good.  And 
the  evening  and  the  morning  were  the  sixth  day. 

Gen.  ii.  7.  And  the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and  breathed 
into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life ;  and  man  became  a  living  soul. 

These  passages  present  to  iis  the  last  stage  in  the  creation, 
the  creation  of  Man.  Before  proceeding  to  this  topic,  how- 
ever, we  will  briefly  recapitulate  Avhat  was  said  in  the  previ- 
ous lecture.  It  should  be  a  fixed  principle  of  interpretation 
that  Genesis  is  written  in  popular  and  not  in  scientific  lan- 
guage. Had  it  been  written  in  scientific  language  it  would 
have  defeated  its  own  object  as  a  communication  for  the  ben- 
efit of  mankind  at  large.  In  that  early  period  of  the  world  it 
would  have  been  as  unintelligible  as  would  a  discourse  upon 
the  magnetic  telegraph  or  the  spectrum  to  the  Feejee  island- 
ers. Had  Moses  described  the  BracTiiopods^  the  Selaci- 
ans,  the  Ophidia7is,  the  Sauriasis — Merjalosaur^  Palmosaxir^ 
IchtJiyosaiir,  Ifjuanodon^  etc. — the  Palmotheriu'tn^  Dinothe- 
rium.  Mastodon,  and  so  on  through  the  whole  nomenclature 


HARMONY  OF  GENESIS  AND  GEOLOGY.     29 

of  modern  Gcoloj^v,  his  account  of  the  creation  would  have 
remained  for  ages  a  sealed  book,  and  have  passed  from  the 
memory  of  mankind  long  before  t]:e  key  to  its  interpretation 
liad  been  discovered.  A  revelation  in  such  language  vi'ould 
have  defeated  its  own  end.  The  same  would  have  been  true 
of  a  scientific  description  of  the  process  of  creation.  But  the 
account  of  the  creation  as  actually  given  is  presented  optic- 
all  y^,  as  the  work  might  have  appeared  to  an  imaginary 
human  observer. 

It  is  equally  important  to  keep  in  mind  that  the  narrative 
was  given  mainly  for  a  moral  purpose — to  set  forth  God  in 
human  history,  and  hence  there  is  a  grand  principle  of  unity 
and  order  in  the  composition,  notwithstanding  diversities  of 
phraseology  and  style.  ^Ve  have  seen,  also,  that  there  is  no 
contradiction  between  this  narrative  of^creation  and  the  estab- 
lished fiicts  of  science.  There  have  been  scientific  theories, 
no  doubt,  which  were  contrary  to  the  Mosaic  account  of 
creation ;  and  certain  interpretations  of  the  book  of  Genesis 
have  also  been  contrary  to  established  Diets  of  science ;  but 
Betting  aside  merely  speculative  theories  on  the  one  hand,  and 
erroneous  interpretations  on  the  other,  we  find  in  this  narra- 
tive, as  an  outline  of  the  creation,  a  general  harmony  with  the 
geological  order.  The  first  two  days  describe  chemical  action 
upon  inorganic  matter;  the  third  day  announces  the  produc- 
tion of  vegetative  life; — the  process  of  evaporation  is  still 
going  forward,  and  the  excess  of  moisture  in  the  atmospliere 
would,  up  to  this  period,  have  obscured  the  planetary  bod- 
ies;— but  on  the  fourth  day  the  astronomical  heavens  are 
made  visible  in  their  relation  to  our  globe ;  the  fifth  and  sixth 
days  introduce  the  successive  gradations  of  animal  life  that 
culminate  at  last  in  man. 

Two  or  three  points  in  this  narrative  are  worthy  of  more 
particular  notice   than  was  given  in  the   previous   lecture, 


30  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

as  illustrating  the  substantial  harmony  of  Geology  with 
Genesis.  In  the  twentieth  verse  of  the  first  chapter  we 
read,  "  And  God  said,  Let  the  waters  bring  forth  abundantly 
the  moving  creature  that  hath  life ; "  and  in  the  succeeding 
verse  we  are  told  that  "  God  created  great  whales,  and  every 
living  creature  that  moveth,  which  the  waters  brought  forth 
abundantly,  after  their  kind."  The  "whales"  were  more 
properly  monsters  of  the  reptile  species ;  the  term  is  comi^re- 
hensive,  including  fishes,  serpents,  dragons,  crocodiles.  ISTow, 
Geology  has  taught  us  that  the  earliest  animals  and  plants  of 
the  globe  were  wholly  water  species.  There  was  a  long  ma- 
rine era,  followed  by  an  amphibian  era,  in  w^hich  reptiles  and 
birds  were  the  dominant  animal  types.  All  this  accords 
exactly  with  the  statement  in  Genesis : — the  rocks  testify  now 
to  swarming  myriads  in  the  sea,  and  again  to  abundance  of 
*'  flying  things,"  whether  insect,  bird,  or  flying  reptile,  all  of 
which  occur  in  the  era  succeeding  the  marine.  Here  is  a  won- 
drous harmony.  Again :  we  know  that  vegetation  was  a 
necessary  prelude  to  animal  life,  vegetation  being  directly 
and  largely  the  food  of  animals ;  and  this  accords  with  the 
statement  in  Genesis,  that  the  plant  kingdom  was  instituted 
before  the  creation  of  animals. 

Two  remarkable  correspondences  between  the  account  in 
Genesis  and  the  facts  of  Geology  concerning  the  introduction  of 
light  are  noted  by  Professor  Dana.  Science  teaches  that  light 
is  produced  by  a  disturbed  action  or  combination  of  molecules. 
It  is  a  result  of  molecular  change.  Matter  in  an  inactive  state, 
without  force,  would  be  dark,  cold,  and  dead.  The  first  effect 
of  the  mutual  action  of  its  molecules  would  be  the  production 
of  light.  The  command,  "  let  light  be,"  was,  therefore,  the 
summons  to  activity  i.n  matter,  and  here  Genesis  is  in  exact 
accordance  with  the  teachings  of  science.  The  Spirit  of  God 
moved  upon  or  breathed  over  the  vast  deep — else  an  abyss  of 


HARMONY  OF  GENESIS  AND  GEOLOGY.  31 

everlasting  night — and  light,  as  the  essential  phenomenon 
of  matter  in  action,  flashed  instantly  through  .  space.  But, 
although  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  must  have  had  tlieir  places 
in  the  physical  universe  when  the  earth  was  established,  for  a 
long  period  the  earth  was  shrouded  in  its  own  vapors  and 
w^armed  with  its  own  heat,  and  therefore  there  was  no  sun 
nor  moon  "  for  days  and  seasons."  When  the  sun  first  broke 
through  the  clouds,  it  w\as  a  day  of  joy  to  the  world,  standing 
as  one  of  the  grand  epochs  of  it&  history. 

Now,  mere  human  invention  would  naturally  have  placed 
the  sun  first  in  order  as  the  source  of  light.  The  idea  of  the 
appearance  of  light  on  the  first  day,  independently  of  the 
shining  sun,  and  of  the  subsequent  unvailing  of  the  sun  by 
dispersing  the  mists  and  clouds,  is  a  result  of  modern  scien- 
tific research,  and  so  foreign  to  the  natural  conceptions  of  the 
human  mind  in  the  early  period  of  its  history,  that  w^e  must 
ascribe  this  marvelously  exact  statement  in  the  first  of  Gene- 
sis to  some  higher  origin.  Thus  what,  upon  the  face  of  it, 
was  a  seeming  discrepancy  in  regard  to  the  first  appearing  of 
the  sun,  becomes  one  of  the  highest  confirmations  of  the  truth 
of  the  record. 

The  absence  of  all  puerility  and  absurdity  from  this  account 
was  also  commented  upon,  and  attention  was  directed  to  the 
principle  of  order  which  runs  through  it  in  describing  the 
course  of  creation.  This  principle  itself  is  scientific,  as  is  also 
the  recognition  of  the  great  first  cause — the  personal  God.  To 
sum  up  all  on  this  point — of  the  harmony  of  Geology  and  Gen- 
esis— we  may  adopt  the  language  of  Professor  Arnold  Guj'ot: 
"The  first  thouc^ht  that  strikes  the  scientific  reader  is  the  evi- 
deuce  of  Divinitv,  not  merelv  in  the  first  verse  of  the  record, 
and  the  successive  fiats,  but  in  tlie  whole  order  of  creation. 
There  is  so  much  that  the  most  recent  readings  of  science  have 
for  the  first  time  explained,  that  the  idea  of  man  as  the  author 


32  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY.       . 

becomes  utterly  incomprehensible.  By  proving  the  record 
true,  science  pronounces  it  divine,  for  who  could  correctly 
narrate  the  secrets  of  eternity  but  God  himself?  Moreover, 
the  order  or  arrangement  is  not  a  possible  intellectual  concep- 
tion, although  we  grant  to  man  the  intuition  of  a  God.  Man 
would  very  naturally  have  placed  the  creation  of  vegetation, 
one  of  the  twwo  kingdoms  of  life,  after  that  of  the  sun,  and 
next  to  that  the  other  kingdom  of  life,  especially  as  the  sun- 
light is  so  essential  to  growth ;  and  the  creation  of  quadru- 
peds he  would  as  naturally  have  referred  to  the  fifth  day, 
leaving  a  whole  day  to  man,  the  most  glorious  of  all  crea- 
tions  The  creation  consists,  according  to  the  record, 

of  two  great  periods ;  the  first  three  days  constitute  the  mor- 
ganic  history,  the  last  three  days  the  organic  history,  of  the 
earth.  Each  period  begins  with  light :  the  first  light  cosmi 
cal,  the  second  light  to  direct  days  and  seasons  on  the  earth. 
Each  period  ends  in  a  day  of  two  great  works.  On  the  third 
day  God  divided  the  land  from  the  waters^  and  He  saw  it 
was  good.  Then  followed  a  work  totally  different,  the  crea- 
ation  of  vegetation^  the  institution  of  a  kingdom  of  life.  So, 
on  the  sixth  day^  God  created  quadrupeds^  and  pronounced 
His  work  good ;  and  as  a  second  and  far  greater  work  of  the 
day,  totally  new  in  its  grandest  element.  He  created  Man."  * 
This  act  of  creation,  described  in  the  twenty-sixth  verse, 
opens  a  new  chapter  in  this  marvelous  history.  It  is  in- 
troduced with  a  new  formula ;  instead  of  the  phrase  "  And 
God  said,"  or  "  And  God  made,"  with  which  the  previous 
acts  of  creation  were  introduced,  we  now  read  "  Let  us  make 
man  in  our  imaged  Moreover,  other  forms  of  organic  life 
were  made,  each  "after  its  kind". —  a  phrase  describing 
the  several  species  of  vegetable  and  animal  life. 

*  Prof.  Guyot,  as  citod  with  comments  by  Prof.  Dana,  in  the  BiUiotheca  Sacra  for 
January,  1856. 


MAN  THE  IMAGE  OF  GOD.  33 

But  the  type  of  man  was  not  found  in  existing  organiza- 
tions, but  in  the  Creator  himself;  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our 
image,  after  our  likeness^''  "Wliat  are  we  to  understand  by 
man's  resemblance  to  God  as  his  image?  Certainly  not  a 
likeness  in  outward  appearance ;  for  although  the  Scriptures 
figuratively  ascribe  to  God  the  members  of  the  human  body, 
hands,  eyes,  feet,  etc.,  no  one  imagines  that  there  is  any  such 
resemblance  of  form  between  the  Creator  and  the  creature. 
ISTeither  was  man  created,  in  the  jiroper  sense  of  that  word,  in 
the  likeness  of  God  in  respect  to  character,  for  holiness  is  not 
properly  a  subject  of  physical  creation.  Besides,  we  read  in 
the  epistle  of  James  concerning  man  in  his  fallen  condition, 
that  he  still  retains  his  orio-inal  likeness  to  God: — "The 
tongue  can  no  man  tame ;  it  is  an  unruly  evil,  full  of  deadly 
poison.  Therewith  bless  we  God,  even  the  Father,  and 
therewith  curse  we  men,  which  are  made  after  the  similitiLde 
of  Gody 

We  must  seek  this  resemblance  in  man's  intellectual  con- 
stitution, in  his  spiritual  capacities  and  powers,  in  his  moral 
faculties,  and  in  that  position  of  dominion  in  which  he  was 
placed  to  represent  the  Creator  upon  the  earth.  Man  is  a 
reasonable,  personal  soul,  and  in  this  respect  is  the  likeness  of 
God.  As  the  Psalmist  expresses  it:  "Thou  madest  him  a 
little  lower  thanElohim" — the  "ano;els"as  it  reads  in  our 
version  ;  but  the  word  used  by  David  was  properly  the  name 
of  God  himself.  The  secondary  meaning  of  "  angels," — which 
is  quoted  from  the  Septuagint  in  the  epistle  to  the  Hebrews — 
was  probably  chosen  by  the  Greek  translators  on  account  of 
the  superstitious  reverence  of  the  Jews  for  the  name  of  God. 
The  literal  statement  of  the  Psalmist  concerninc:  man  is. 
Thou  madest  him  but  little  short  of  the  Divine. 

The  whole  physical  creation  was  prepared  as  a  platform 
for  man,  as  a  temple  for  its  priest;  and  his  likeness  to  Gocl 


34  MAN :  m  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

appears  in  the  supremacy  witli  which  he  vms  invested  over 
nature,  by  virtue  of  his  spiritual  power.  As  Thohick  ex- 
presses it :  *'  The  lion  has  his  tooth,  the  crocodile  his  coat  of 
mail,  the  birds  their  wings,  the  fish  their  .fins ;  but  which  is 
man's  weapon  for  attack,  which  his  shield  for  defense  ? — the 
spifit  from  God :  therefore  all  must  obey  him.  The  cattle  on 
the  pasture,  wild  beasts  roaming  the  forests,  birds  flying  below 
the  expanse  of  heaven,  fish  swimming  in  the  depths  of  the 
sea ;  they  all  must  obey  him — man  is  their  lord  and  king."  * 

The  seventh  verse  of  the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  points 
expressly  to  the  dual  constitution  of  man — an  animal  nature 
formed  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  that  is,  a  physical  organiza- 
tion from  existing  materials,  and  the  spiritual  nature,  the 
divine  in-breathing,  by  virtue  of  which  man,  as  a  conscious 
and  rational  soul,  resembles  God  as  a  being  of  intelligence, 
having  power  of  voluntary  action,  and  invested  with  domin- 
ion over  nature. 

Such  is  the  characterization  pf  man  in  the  Biblical  account 
of  his  origin.  Geology  assigns  to  man  the  same  position  in 
the  order  of  creation  which,  is  given  him  in  the  book  of 
Genesis.  Upon  this  point  all  geologists,  however  diverse 
their  theories,  are  perfectly  agreed.  Man  began  to  be.  In 
certain  stages  of  our  globe  he  could  not  have  existed  on  its 
surface.  For  instance,  in  the  carboniferous  period,  when 
rank  vegetation  flourished  over  the  regions  of  our  present 
coal  beds,  the  atmospheric  conditions  of  temperature  and 
moisture,  and  the  excess  of  carbonic  acid  in  the  air,  were 
conditions  impossible  to  human  life.  For  long,  long  periods 
there  is  no  trace  of  man's  existence  in  the  strata  pf  the  globe, 
nor  are  his  remains  found  among  the  earlier  fossils  of  organic 
forms.     Man  is  the  highe^st  type  of  organization  upon  the 

♦  «'  Commentary  on  Psalm  viii." 


MAN  TUB  HEAD  OF  THE  CREATION.      35 

surface  of  the  globe.  In  particular  members,  and  in  adapta- 
tions to  particular  ends,  other  creatures  are  superior  to  man  ; 
but  by  his  powers  of  locomotion,  of  endurance,  aud  of  con- 
trivance, man  is  fitted  to  subdu©  all  other  creatures,  and  to 
subjugate  and  modify  the  earth.  Erect,  compact,  agile, 
symmetrical,  efficient,  and  enduring,  he  is  properly  the  lord 
of  the  creation.  Pre-existent  nature  was  a  prophecy  of  his 
coming.  The  physical  creation  rose  stej)  by  step,  platform 
upon  platform,  like  a  pyramid,  Avhose  apex  is  Man.  Cicero 
says :  "  When  you  look  upon  a  large  and  beautiful  house, 
thougli  you  should  not  see  the  master  and  find  it  quite  empty, 
no  one  can  persuade  you  that  it  was  built  for  the  mice  and 
weasels  that  abound  in  it."  If  we  imao-ine  some  hir)her  Intel- 
ligence  to  have  looked  upon  our  globe  at  various  periods  of 
its  formation  prior  to  the  appearance  of  man,  he  must  have 
seen  that  this  structure  was  as  yet  incomplete,  that  it  could 
not  be  designed  for  the  mere  home  of  star-fish  and  lizards, 
that  there  must  be  some  hicjher  order  of  being:  for  whom  all 
this  was  preparing. 


LECTURE    III. 

ht    Bxiaxn   of   matt. 


THEOEIES    OF   DEVELOPilENT. 

That  man  is  not  coeval  with  the  globe  that  lie  inhabits,  but 
came  into  existence  only  in  the  last  great  age  of  geological 
time,  that  he  crowned  the  series  of  organic  life,  that  he  was 
endowed  with  intellectual  and  moral  faculties,  and  invested 
with  dominion  over  Nature,  are  points  upon  which  science 
attests  the  statements  of  the  Biblical  history.  But  a  school 
of  scientists  deny  that  man  was  the  immediate  product  of  a 
new  creation,  and  refer  his  origin  to  a  Z/Ciio  of  Development 
Avhich  they  profess  to  trace  in  all  organic  Nature,  working 
through  secondary  causes,  without  the  intervention  of  a 
personal  Creator.  Various  as  are  the  theories  of  development, 
they  all  agree  in  ascribing  the  successive  forms  of  life  to 
secondary  causes.  As  applied  to  Man,  this  doctrine  demands 
a  careful  investigation. 

The  notion  that  man  was  somehow  develoj^ed  out  of  the 
Simia  is  not  of  recent  origin.  Eighteen  centuries  ago  Pliny 
wrote,  "Man  is  the  being  for  whose  sake  all  other  things 
appear  to  have  been  produced  by  Nature ;"  yet  he  remarked, 
also,  that  "  the  various  kinds  of  apes  offer  an  almost  perfect 
resemblance  to  man  in  their  physical  structure."  Professor 
Huxley  has  made  no  advance  upon  Pliny  in  his  statement 
that,  "  so  far  as  structure  is  concerned,  man  diiFers  to  no 
greater  extent  from  the  animals  which  are  immediately  below 
him,  than  these  do  from  other  members  of  the  same  order ;" 
but  Huxley  draws  from  this  the  inference,  "  tliat  man  has 


PROGRESSIVE  ORDER  NOT  DEVELOPMENT.         37 

proceeded  from  a  modification  or  an  improvement  of  some 
lower  animal,  some  simpler  stock."  This  idea  found  a  tan- 
gible expression  m  the  early  pagan  mythologies.  The  god 
of  flocks  and  shepherds  among  the  Greeks  was  believed  to 
"■  ^  a  compound  creature,  having  the  horns  and  feet  of  a  goat 
and  the  face  of  a  man.  Their  satyrs  or  forest  divinities  were 
creatures  that  blended  the  animal  with  the  human.  Tlie 
fauns  of  Roman  legend  were  supposed  to  mark  the  transition 
from  the  bnite  creation  to  man, — an  idea  that  Hawthorne 
has  finely  wrought  up  in  his  "  Marble  Fann."  Thus  the 
question  of  man's  development  out  of  some  lower  type  of 
creature  does  not  lie  between  new  discoveries  of  science  and 
old  dogmas  of  theology.  The  notion  is  as  old  as  the  oldest 
fables.  Still,  it  deserves  most  candid  consideration.  We 
will  first  define  precisely  what  the  doctrine  is. 

The  question  is  not  that  of  a  progressive  order  in  the  crea- 
tion as  a  whole,  but  of  the  development  of  superior  species 
from  inferior  by  mere  natural  laws, — and  especially  the  devel- 
opment of  man  from  animals  next  below  him  in  tlie  scale  of 
life.  These  two  things  must  not  be  confounded.  In  the  plan 
of  the  physical  creation  there  are  distinct  traces  of  a  progres- 
sive series  in  the  types  of  existences.  This  is  evident  from 
organic  remains  in  the  strata  of  the  earth.  Professor  Guyot 
has  shown*  that  the  formation  of  gases,  of  minerals,  of  water, 
— in  a  word,  of  the  various  constituents  of  inorganic  Xature — • 
must  have  subsided  before  life  could  besfin.  Also  there  was 
an  adaptation  of  the  physical  condition  of  tlie  globe  to 
successive  grades  of  life,  which  evinces  purpose,  plan,  and 
therefore  Intelligence.  And  there  Avas  an  advance  in  sys- 
tems. Thus  we  find  growth  in  fishes,  nutrition  in  reptiles, 
motion  in  birds,  and  symmetrical  union   in  mammals  ;    and 

*  Notes  of  his  unpubliehed  lectures  on  Man  Primeval,  delivered  as  the  Morso 
Lectures  in  Union  Theologic.nl  Seminary,  for  1869. 


38  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

again  the  gradations  of  Matter,  Life,  Soul — the  lower  the 
suhstratimi  of  the  hig?ier,  but  not  its  source. 

But  this  advance  in  types  is  not  necessarily  the  develop- 
ment of  one  out  of  another.  On  this  point  Mr.  Darwin 
liimself  has  been  misunderstood  and  somewhat  misrepre- 
sented. His  speculations  have  no  direct  bearing  on  the 
Biblical  doctrine  of  creation  by  a  personal  God.  His  mode 
of  accounting  for  the  origin  of  species  does  not  dispense  with 
divine  causation.  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  is  not  that  of  spon- 
taneous generation,  for  he  maintains  that  "not  only  the 
various  domestic  races,  but  the  most  distinct  genera  and 
orders  within  the  same  great  class,  are  all  descendants  of  one 
common  progenitor." 

The  development  of  the  higher  out  of  the  lower  assumes  a 
gradation  of  orders,  and  the  displacement  of  the  lower  in 
producing  the  higher,;  but  Darwin  teaches  simply  that  the 
variation  of  species  is  induced  by  causes  which  already  ex- 
isted in  the  common  progenitor.  Neither  does  he  teach 
origination  by  natural  causes  alone.  Divergence  by  selection, 
resulting  at  last  in  prominent  variations  of  type,  he  ascribes 
to  natural  causes ;  but  the  j^revious  question,  "  How  organic 
matter  began  to  exist,"  he  does  not  touch  at  all.  He  eays, 
practically  : — "  Given  the  origin  of  organic  matter,  supposing 
its  creation  to  have  already  taken  place,  my  object  is  to  fehow 
in  consequence  of  what  laws,  or  what  demonstrable  proper- 
ties of  organic  matter,  and  of  its  environments,  such  states 
of  organic  Nature  as  those  witli  which  we  are  acquainted 
must  have  come  about ;"  *  in  short,  he  is  accounting  for  phe- 
nomena in  species  which  have  been  brought  to  pass,  a8  he 
alleges,  by  certain  laws  operating  upon  them  since  the  ori- 
ginal creation.     On  this  point  Professor  Dana  teaches  that 

*  statement  of  Darwin's  views,  by  Prof.  Huxley. 


SUCCESSIVE   CREATIONS  OF  SPECIES.  89 

"  species  have  not  been  made  out  of  species  by  any  process 
of  growtli  or  development,  for  the  transition  forms  do  not 
occur;  that  the  cvokitioii  or  phm  of  progress  was  by  suc- 
cessive creations  of  sj^ecies,  iu  their  full  perfection.  After 
every  evolution,  no  imperfect  or  lialf-made  forms  occur ;  no 
back  step  in  creation;  but  a  step  forward,  through  new 
forms,  more  elevated  in  general  than  those  of  earlier  times ; 
til  at  the  creation  was  not  in  a  lineal  series  from  the  very 
lowest  upward.  The  types  are  wholly  independent,  and  are 
not  connected  lineally,  either  historically  or  zoologically. 
The  earliest  species  of  a  class  were  often  far  from  the  very 
lowest,  although  among  the  inferior.  In  many  cases  the  ori- 
ginal or  earliest  group  was  but  little  inferior  to  those  of  later 
date,  and  the  progress  Avas  toward  a  purer  expression  of  the 
type.  But  Geology  declares,  unequivocally,  that  the  new 
forms  were  new  expressions,  under  the  type-idea,  by  created 
material  forms,  and  not  by  forms  educed  or  developed  from 
one  another."  * 

To  give  one  more  authority  on  the  same  point,  Professor 
Agassiz  says :  "  Some  have  mistaken  the  action  and  re-action 
which  exist  everywhere  between  organized  beings,  and  the 
physical  influences  under  which  they  live,  for  a  causal  or 
genetic  connection,  and  carried  their  mistakes  so  far  as  to 
assert  that  these  manifold  influences  could  really  extend  to 
the  production  of  these  beings ;  not  considering  how  inade- 
quate such  a  cause  would  be,  and  that  even  the  action  of 
physical  agents  upon  organized  beings  presuj)poses  the  very 
existence  of  those  beings.  The  simple  fict  that  there  has 
been  a  period  in  the  history  of  our  earth,  now  well  knov/n  to 
geologists,  when  none  of  these  organized  beings  as  yet  ex- 
isted, and   when,  nevertheless,  the  material  constitution  of 

*  Bihliotheca  Sacra,  January  and  July,  1856. 


40  MAN  :  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

onr  globe  and  the  physical  forces  acting  upon  it  were  essen- 
tially the  same  as  they  are  now,  shows  that  tliese  influences 
are  insufficient  to  call  into  existence  any  living  being. 

"  Nothing  is  more  striking,"  he  adds,  "  throughout  the 
animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms,  than  the  unity  of  plan  in 
the  structure  of  the  most  diversified  types.  From  i^ole  to 
pole,  in  every  longitude,  mammalia,  birds,  reptiles,  and  fishes 
exhibit  one  and  the  same  plan  of  structure,  involving  abstract 
concejDtions  of  the  highest  order,  far  transcending  the  broad- 
est generalizations  of  man, — for  it  is  only  after  the.  most 
laborious  investigations  that  man  has  arrived  at  an  imperfect 
understanding  of  this  plan ;  and  yet  this  logical  connection, 
these  beautiful  harmonies,  this  infinite  diversity  in  unity,  are 
represented  by  some  as  the  result  of  forces  exhibiting  no 
trace  of  intelligence,  no  power  of  thinking,  no  faculty  of 
combination,  no  knowledge  of  time  and  space.  If  there  is 
anything  which  places  man  above  all  other  beings  in  Nature, 
it  is  precisely  the  circumstance  that  he  possesses  those  noble 
attributes  without  which,  in  their  most  exalted  excellence 
and  perfection,  not  one  of  these  general  traits  of  relationship 
so  characteristic  of  the  great  type  of  the  animal  and  vege- 
table kingdoms  can  be  understood  or  even  perceived.  How, 
then,  could  these  relations  have  been  devised  without  similar 
powers  ?  If  all  these  relations  are  almost  beyond  the  reach 
of  tiie  mental  powers  of  man,  and  if  man  himself  is  part  and 
parcel  of  the  whole  system,  how  could  this  system  have  been 
called  into  existence  if  there  does  not  exist  One  Supreme  In- 
telli2:ence  as  the  Author  of  all  thinsis."* 

A  strong  ^?nm(?  facie  argument  against  the  theory'-  of  de- 
velopment is  found  in  the  fact  that,  through  all  departments 
of  the  universe  there  are  traces  of  invisible  and  immaterial 

*  Essay  on  Claseification,  Sections  II.  and  17. 


PROGRESS  BY  SPIRITUAL  POWER.  41 

Powers,  that  lie  back  of  the  phenomena  that  come  imder  the 
direct  cognizance  of  science,  and  are  jiroximate  causes  of 
those  phenomena.  Thus,  chemical  afiinity  lies  back  of  and 
produces  the  more  important  phenomena  of  inorganic  matter ; 
the  principle  of  growth,  which  can  not  itself  be  analyzed  or 
defined,  produces  vast  changes  in  tlie  vegetable  kingdom; 
the  principle  of  instinct  influences  many  of  the  manifestations 
of  animal  life,  and  finally,  a  spiritual  intelligence  controls  the 
actions  of  man.  Does  not  this  universality  of  invisible  and 
immaterial  powers  point  to  a  supreme  spiritual  Power  back 
of  all  phenomena,  and  producing  them  ? 

It  may  be  said,  however,  that  the  doctrine  of  develop- 
ment does  not  displace  the  personal  Creator,  but  only  re- 
moves to  a  greater  distance  the  original  act  of  creative 
130 wer,  which  set  in  order  the  productive  agencies  whose 
results  have  been  evolved  in  the  successive  types  of  ex- 
istence. We  come,  then,  to  the  immediate  question,  Was 
Man  developed  out  of  that  which  preceded  him,  and  which 
was  so  manifestly  a  preparation  for  his  coming?  Suppose, 
for  the  sake  of  the  argument,  we  admit  that,  as  to  his 
physical  organization,  man  was  but  an  improvement  upon 
liomologous  structures  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  that  there 
was  a  progress  through  these  successive  forms  up  to  the 
most  perfect  physical  model,  we  shall  then  have  provided 
only  for  the  exterior  case  of  the  Man,  by  a  plastic  law  of  the 
Creator,  and  we  must  still  refer  the  higher  nature,  the  true 
spiritual  humanity  to  God,  from  whom  alone  it  could  proceed. 
But  we  can  not  make  even  this  concession  concerning  the 
lower  physical  organization  of  Man.  President  Hopkins,*  in 
in  an  able  discourse  upon  the  principle  of  progress  in  the 
creation,  calls  attention  to  the  distinction  between  a   con- 

*  A  Baccalaureate  Sermon  by  Mark  nopkins,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Williams 
College. 


42  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

dition  and  a  cause.  The  universe,  for  instance,  is  built 
upon  successive  platforms  of  conditions,  each  platform  being 
narrower  than  that  directly  beneath  it,  and  the  conditions 
being  broader  in  their  range  of  application  than  the  thing 
conditioned  thereupon.  Thus  gravitation,  cohesion,  and 
chemical  affinity  are  all  conditions  of  vegetative  life;  but 
these  do  not  produce  that  life, — they  are  not  its  proper 
cause. 

The  Life  is  a  new  principle  which  enters  from  some  other 
source,  and  lifts  up  these  antecedent  and  necessary  con- 
ditions upon  a  new  platform  for  its  uses.  And  so  on  through 
all  the  higher  stages  of  existence,  the  end  of  the  lower  is 
the  higher,  but  the  lower  ends  wdthout  j^roducing  the  higher, 
and  has  not  in  itself  any  power  of  producing  the  higher. 
Something  not  already  in  itself  enters  in  to  combine  these 
conditions  and  i^roduce  the  next  higher  plane.  To  the  same 
efiect  is  the  teachin«:  of  Professor  Dana: — ^that  life  and 
jDhysical  or  inorganic  force  are  directly  opposite  in  their 
tendencies ;  that  inorganic  and  organic  Nature  move  in  op- 
posite directions;  so  that,  on  scientific  grounds,  we  should 
conclude  that  physical  force  could  not,  by  any  metamorphosis, 
give  rise  to  Life.  Neither  is  there  any  autliority  from  science 
to  assert  that  Life  itself  is  capable  of  more  than  simply  living 
and  reproducing  itself  "  Suppose  the  w'orld  to  be  in  its 
condition  of  inorganic  progress,  we  have  no  scientific  ground 
for  supposing  that  it  could  pass  to  a  higher  state,  possessing 
living  beings,  by  any  parturient  j^owers  within.  Or  if  Life 
exists,  we  still  get  no  hint  as  to  the  evolution  of  the  four 
sub-kingdoms  of  animal  life  from  a  universal  germ;  nor  as 
to  the  origin  of  the  Class-types,  Order-family,  or  Genus- 
types,  or  those  of  Species,  each  of  which  is  a  distinct  idea 
in  the  j^lan  of  creation.  Nature,  in  fact,  pronounces  such 
a  theory  of  evolution  absolutely  false.      The  perpetual  pres- 


NO  TRANSITIONAL  FORMS.  43 

Bence  of  Mind,  infinite  in  power,  wisdom,  and  love,  and  ever 
acting,  is  manifest  in  the  whole  liistory  of  the  past."* 

ProfeSfrOr  Huxley,  indeed,  believes  there  is  a  "physical 
basis  of  Life,"  which  underlies  all  the  diversities  of  vital 
existence  so  that  a  nnity  of  power  or  faculty,  a  unity  of 
form,  and  the  unity  of  substantial  composition,  pervades 
the  whole  living  world.  But  granting  that  what  he  calls 
a  *'  nucleated  mass  of  protoplasm  "  is  the  structural  unit  of 
the  human  body,  and  that  the  body  itself  is  a  mere  multiple 
of  such  units,  still  Professor  Huxley  admits  the  necessity  of 
a  2?)'e-e:nstl?i[/  living  protoplastti  in  order  to  the  production 
of  life ;  and  for  the  origin  of  this  he  does  not  pretend  to 
account.  Indeed,  he  admits  that  we  know  nothing  about 
the  composition  of  any  body  whatever,  as  it  is,  and  that 
chemical  investigation  can  tell  us  little  or  nothing,  directly, 
of  the  composition  of  living  matter.  Hence,  of  all  the  known 
forces  and  properties  in  the  physical  universe  before  man, 
we  have  no  evidence  that  there  was  in  them,  singly  or  com- 
bined, a  power  that  could  have  produced  man  as  a  living 
soul.  The  conditions  of  his  existence  were  not  the  causes 
of  his  existence. 

If  man  was  produced  by  evolution  from  pre-existing  or- 
ganisms, where  are  the  transitional  forms  ?  The  change 
from  the  highest  Simian  type  to  the  lowest  human  must 
have  been  gradual,  and  have  extended  over  a  long  j^eriod. 
But  no  traces  have  been  found  of  a  creature  intermediate 
between  the  ape  and  man,  nor  of  a  Simian  tribe  so  for  ad- 
vanced as  to  fill  up  the  gap.  Professor  Carl  Yogt,t  indeed, 
maintains  that  "  microccphali  and  born  uliots  present  as 
perfect  a  series  from  man  to  ape  as  may  be  wished  for;  and 
since  it  is  possible  that  man,  by  arrest  of  development,  may 

*  BUjliotheca  Sacra,  January,  1856. 

t  Lectures  on  Man ;  and  Memoir  on  Microcephali,  or  IIuman-Ape  Organisms. 


44:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

aj^proximate  the  ape,  the  formative  law  must  be  the  same 
for  both  ;  and  so  we  can  not  deny  the  possibility  that  just  as 
man  may,  by  arrest  of  development,  sink  down  to  the  ape, 
so  may  the  ape,  by  a  progressive  development,  approximate 
to  man."  But  this  by  no  means  follows.  Exceptional  cases 
of  degradation  from  the  superior  to  the  inferior  can  not  be 
held  to  prove  a  reverse  law  of  progressive  development  from 
the  inferior  to  superior.  Yogt's  reasoning  is  based  entirely 
upon  a  few  abnormal  specimens  of  suppressed  human  devel- 
opment ;  whereas  his  argument  requires  that  he  should  pro- 
duce specimens  of  advanced  Simian  development,  approx- 
imating humanity  by  slow  but  evident  degrees.  In  the  thou- 
sands of  years  since  men  and  apes  have  lived  side  by  side,  the 
ape  has  made  no  advance  toward  the  form,  the  habits,  or 
the  intelligence  of  man.  "Why  has  there  been  no  lucky  in- 
stance of  a  humanized  ape,  under  the  favoring  conditions 
of  human  example,  and  with  the  supposed  precedent  of 
such  a  development  given  in  the  origin  of  man  ?  And  why 
has  palaeontology  presented  no  specimen  of  the  transitional 
ape,  which  had  at  least  advanced  to  the  level  of  idiotic  hu- 
manity, resembling  man  in  the  organs  of  the  body,  though 
deficient  in  his  manifestations  of  mind  ? 

But  while  such  resemblances  as  Carl  Yogt  has  traced 
between  abnormal  specimens  of  humanity  and  the  higher 
Simian  types  may  give  plausibility  to  a  theory  of  develop- 
ment, there  are,  on  the  other  hand,  characteristics  of  man 
which  so  completely  individualize  him,  and  separate  him 
from  animals,  as  to  neutralize  the  argument  from  resem- 
blances. 

Kochet  has  grouped  these  discriminating  characteristics 
under  five  principal  heads,  a  brief  summary  of  which  must 
answer  my  purpose  for  popularizing  the  subject. 

(1.)  3Ian  examined  externally  as  regards  form.     There 


THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  MAN.  45 

is  not  a  single  feature  in  the  human  face  "which,  examined 
from  an  artistic  standpoint,  does  not  constitute  a  character 
of  beauty  and  nobility  foreign  to  the  animal.  Man  alone 
has  an  expressive  and  intelligent  physiognomy.  This  applies 
also  to  the  body.  The  erect  stature,  the  perfection  of  the 
hand  and  of  the  foot,  are  characters  of  the  same  value. 
The  hand  is  especially  characteristic.  Man  alone  has  a  true 
hand ;  he  alone  uses  this  admirable  instrument  for  creating 
the  thousands  of  industrial  and  artistic  masterpieces. 

(2.)  The  internal^  sensitive.,  or  'moral  man.  Man  is  en- 
dowed with  a  moral  sensibility  altogether  unknown  to  the 
rest  of  oro;anized  bein2:s.  lie  loves  or  believes  in  tinners 
animals  have  no  notion  of  He  possesses  the  feeling  of  the 
beautiful,  the  ugly,  of  wrong  and  right.  He  alone  is  con- 
scious of  the  morality  or  immorality  of  his  acts.  Man  alone 
has  an  idea  of  God,  and  is  attached  to  him  by  feeling  and 
intelligence. 

Man  alone  of  all  animated  beings  forms  a  complete  fimily. 
The  animal  takes  life  as  it  finds  it,  without  any  way  modify- 
ing it.  Man,  on  the  contrary,  takes  life  according  to  his 
will ;  for  all  the  regions  of  the  globe  form  part  of  his  do- 
main ;  and  he  can  in  a  thousand  ways  vary  the  mode 
of  his  existence. 

(3.)  3ra)i  considered  as  an  active  being.  Even  in  satis- 
fying the  lowest  appetites,  man  differs  from  animals.  He 
alone  prepares  his  food  by  cooking  it.  Man  alone  j^rovides 
himself  with  clothes  to  protect  himself  from  the  elements. 
When  we  treat  of  industry,  instruments,  and  arms,  the  dif- 
ference is  enormous.  Man  possesses  another  important  char- 
acter,— intelligent  speech. 

(4.)  Man  considered  as  an  intelligent  being — or  the  facid- 
ties  of  the  human  mind.  Animals  possess  a  memory ;  but 
in   them   it   is   a   faculty   founded   only  on  wants,  personal 


46  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

utility,  without  any  true  notion  of  the  objects ;  while  in 
man,  who,  by  means  of  language,  conveys  ideas,  the  facts 
of  memory  acquire  great  value.  The  animal  possesses 
nothing  analogous  to  the  free-will  of  man.  The  animal  en- 
tirely wants  imagination,  which  for  man  is  the  charm  of 
life,  the  consolation  and  the  remedy  for  his  evils. 

(5.)  3Ian  considered  as  a  collective  being.  The  animal 
constantly  loses  territory  which  man  gains.  The  day  will 
arrive  when  tliere  will  be  on  the  surface  of  the  earth  only 
such  animals  as  are  useful  to  man.  Animality  has  no  prin- 
ciple of  cohesion  in  its  members.  Every  animal  lives  only 
for  itself  But  men  group  together  and  combine  their  forces, 
and,  although  individually  weak,  they  acquire  an  immense 
power.  Man  transmits  his  works  and  his  conquests  to  his 
descendants.  The  animal  perishes,  and  leaves  only  his  skel 
eton  behind.* 

Now,  these  characters  are  qualitative^  and  serve  to  dis 
tinguish  Man  as  a  species.  They  belong  to  a  plane  so  much 
higher  than  animal  life  that  they  must  have  been  derived, 
from  a  source  above  the  laws  and  conditions  of  that  life ; 
they  answer  to  and  verify  the  place  assigned  to  man  by  the 
Mosaic  account  of  his  creation ;  that  he  was  made  in  the 
image  of  God,  and  invested  with  dominion  "over  the  fish  of 
the  sea,  and  over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  the  cattle, 
and  over  all  the  earth,  and  over  every  creeping  thing  that 
creepeth  upon  the  earth."  The  adaptation  of  man  for  this 
supremacy  over  Nature  is  marked  by  that  feature  of  his 
physical  structure  which  Professor  Dana  has  happily  termed 
cephalization.  "  The  head  of  an  animal  being  the  seat  of 
power,  containing  the  principal  nervous  mass,  and  the  various 
organs  of  the  senses,  it  is  natural  that  among  species  rank 

*  These  views  of  M.  Eochet  are  condensed  from  the  Bulletins  of  the  Paris  Anthro- 
pological Society,  and  published  in  the  Loudon  Anthropological  Review,  April,  1869. 


MAN  DISTINGUISHED  BY  THE  BRAIN.  47 

should  be  marked  by  means  of  variations  in  the  structure 
of  the  head ;  and  not  only  by  variations  in  structure,  but 
also  in  the  extent  to  whicli  the  rest  of  the  body  directly 
contributes,  by  its  members,  to  the  uses  or  purposes  of  the 
head."  Xow,  in  man,  the  organs  of  digestion,  of  locomotion, 
and  the  like,  are  reduced  to  the  oninimum  of  the  demands 
of  a  rational  creature,  while  "  his  nervous  system  stands 
vertical,  with  the  brain  at  the  summit,  and  that  brain  nearly 
treble  the  size  of  the  brain  of  a  gorilla."  The  body  in  all 
its  parts  is  placed  directly  under  tlie  domination  of  the  head, 
and  is  fitted  for  head-uses.  "  The  superiority  of  man  to  other 
animals  has  long  been  recognized  in  the  structure  of  his 
hand^  Avhich  is  so  wonderfully  fashioned  for  the  service  of 
his  exalted  nature;  in  his  erectness  of  form^  which  seems 
like  a  promise  of  a  world  above,  denied  the  animal,  which 
goes  bowed  toward  the  earth ;  in  his  face^  which  is  made 
not  only  to  exhibit  the  inferior  emotion  of  pleasure,  through 
the  smile  or  laugh,  but — when  not  debased  by  sin — to  move 
in  quick  response  to  all  higher  emotions  and  sentiments,  and 
calls  for  sympathy,  as  though  it  were  the  outer  film  of  the 
soul  itself;  in  his  speedi^  which  is  the  soul  in  fuller  action 
wielding  its  power  in  force  on  other  souls.  "We  now  per- 
ceive that  these  characteristics  are  outer  manifestations  of  a 
structure  whose  elevation  for  the  uses  of  the  brain  is  in 
accord  with  man's  greatness  of  intellect  and  soul.  Thus 
living  Nature,  as  Avith  universal  acclaim,  bows  before  man 
its  visible  head.  Man,  the  oifspring,  not  of  Xature,  but  of 
God,  can  not  be  brought  within  the  plane  of  a  material  de- 
velopment without  destroying  all  that  is  distinctive  hi  Hu- 
manity." His  dominion  over  Nature  will  be  set  fortli  more  at 
length  in  a  subsequent  lecture.  But  Ave  can  not  close  this 
train  of  thou2:ht  Avithout  a  c:rateful  reco^'nition  of  the  nobil- 
ity  and  grandeur  of  our  Humanity  as  first  conceived  in  the 


48  MAN:  m  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

design  of  God  !  There  are  some  who  object  to  the  Biblical 
view  of  man,  that  it  is  degrading,  that  it  makes  no  recog- 
nition of  that  dignity  of  which  he  is  conscious,  that  it  puts 
upon  him  no  such  honor  as  science  accords  to  him  in  the 
creation.  So  far  from  this,  it  is  the  Bible  that  puts  honor 
upon  man  in  the  record  of  his  creation. 

It  is  not  the  Bible  that  traces  the  origin  of  man  back  to  the 

monkev  or  the  trilobite ; — this  makes  him  the  child  of  God, 

**  .        .     .  . 

created  in  his  image,  for  his  companionship   and  his  glory. 

True,  the  Bible  represents  man  as  fallen  and  degraded  in 
character,  but  this  by  his  own  act,  because  God  had  made 
him  a  being  of  voluntary  powers,  which  powers  he  perverted 
to  his  own  degradation ; — but,  nevertheless,  by  reason  of 
these  very  powers,  he  is  capable  of  recovery  and  restoration 
to  his  original  place  and  destiny  as  the  offspring  of  God.  As 
the  highest  organization  upon  the  globe  he  inhabits,  he  is  the 
crowning  excellence  of  the  creation.  But  this  organic  perfec- 
tion is  a  small  i:>art  of  the  Creator's  ideal  in  man.  When, 
after  all  his  other  work,  God  said,  "  Let  us  make  man  in  our 
own  image,  after  our  likeness,"  He  set  him  apart  from  all  other 
creatures  in  a  sublime  pre-eminence,  and  put  the  seal  of  divin- 
ity upon  him  as  an  intelligent  soul ;  and  then,  as  if  to  repre- 
sent Himself  upon  the  earth,  He  crowned  man  with  glory  and 
honor,  and  set  him  over  all  the  works  of  His  hand.  No  the- 
ory of  development,  no  speculation  of  philosophy,  no  dream 
of  poet  can  place  man  upon  such  a  pinnacle  of  honor  as  that 
where  God  set  him  at  the  fii^Bt.  He  has  thrown  him'self  down 
from  that  position  of  dignity  by  self-will,  self-worship,  the 
love  of  the  creature, — by  knowing,  willful,  daring  disobedi- 
ence of  God.  Man  is  not  a  poor,  struggling  creature,  just 
breaking  away  from  the  fellowship  of  brute  beasts  and  mak- 
ing fitful  endeavors  after  a  higher  life ; — he  is  a  fallen  creature. 
The  image  of  God,  a  little  lower  than  the  Elohim,  he  has 


THE  DIGNITY  OF  MAN.  49 

debased  himself  to  the  level  of  creatures  of  the  earth  and 
earthy.  Take  away  sin  from  man,  and  he  would  no  longer 
grope  after  an  affinity  "with  brutes,  but  feel  again  his  fellow- 
ship with  God.  As  Tholuck  finely  says,  "  We  are  feudal 
servants,  holding  our  title  over  the  lower  creation  by  grant 
from  the  Creator  and  Lord  of  all.  But,  elated  by  arrogance, 
the  feudal  servant  has  rebelled  aQ;ainst  his  feudal  lord.  We 
ought  to  consider  ourselves  servants,  but  set  up  ouiifelves  as 
independent  lords  of  creation.  We  ought  to  be  the  priests 
of  God,  re-oflering  to  Ilim,  and  using  for  His  glory,  whatever 
His  creation  has  provided  for  us;  but  have  become  idolaters, 
worshiping  the  idols  of  our  own  selves.  It  is  one  of  the 
effects  of  that  rebellion,  that  our  royal  scepter  became 
broken,  and  that  only  a  fragment  of  it  remained  in  our 
hand ;  for  our  present  knowledge  and  power  are  but  poor 
fragments  of  the  glory  which  we  were  originally  destined 
to  enjoy."*  That  glory  man  can  not  regain  by  material 
means.  No  progress  in  the  physical  sciences  can  ever 
restore  him  to  his  forfeited  position.  The  soul  is  the  true 
seat  of  dominion,  and  his  restoration  must  come  through  the 
renovation  of  the  soul. 

Suppose  that,  with  infinite  pains  and  daring  risks,  one 
climbs  to  the  summit  of  Mount  Blanc ;  he  can  not  stay 
there,  —  he  must  either  perish  with  cold  or  die  from  the 
difnculty  of  breathing  at  that  height.  He  finds  himself 
•encompassed  also  with  clouds  that  intercept  his  vision,  so 
that  only  by  rare  glimpses  can  he  see  farther  than  from 
many  a  lower  peak.  He  can  have  only  for  a  moment 
the  vain  satisfaction  of  having  outclimbed  his  fellows,  and 
must  descend  ao-ain  from  this  chillino-  heio-ht,  with  no  new 
dominion  over  Xature,  to  share  the  common  lot  of  men.     But 


*  Tholuck,  "  Commentary  on  Psalm  vii!." 
3 


^0  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

with  a  soul  renewed  to  holiness,  he  can  rise  to  Alpine  heights 
of  vision  and  of  glory,  higher  and  yet  higher,  commanding  at 
each  ascent  some  wider  prospect  of  truth,  inhaling  a  purer 
atmosphere,  gathering  strength  as  he  rises  for  yet  loftier 
attainments,  evermore  rising  toward  God,  his  source,  his  cen- 
ter, and  his  all.  Of  Him,  and  through  Him,  and  to  Him  are 
all  things :  to  Him  be  glory  forever.     Amen. 


LECTURE    ly. 


Does  Man  belong  to  Nature  as  begotten  of  it,  included  in 
it,  concluded  by  it?  or  does  Nature  belong  to  Man  as  his 
original  birthright,  his  temporary  habitat,  his  ultimate  domin- 
ion ?  Is  it  true,  as  some  physicists  affirm,  that  Man  is  just 
the  latest  outcome  of  Nature's  efforts  at  improving  upon  her 
own  experiments  in  organic  life — the  treasured  selection  of 
some  accidental  variety  of  birth  in  a  Chimpanzee  family  ?  or, 
as  say  others,  that  he  is  "  but  the  last  term  of  an  innumera- 
ble series  of  organisms  which  has  been  slowly  evolving  under 
the  domination  of  the  same  law?"  or  that  Man,  whenever  and 
however  he  began  to  be,  is  "  under  the  absolute  control  of 
physical  agencies,"  cradled  by  Nature  and  molded  at  her 
will  ?  Have  we  done  with  Personalitv,  done  with  Conscious- 
ness,  done  with  Liberty — except  as  a  name  to  fight  for — done 
Avith  Progress,  save  in  the  fixed  and  narrow  groove  of  phys- 
ics and  statistics — which,  after  all,  is  not  progress,  but  the 
rotation  of  natural  forces  in  an  ever-returning  cycle  ? — have 
we  done  w^ith  Spiritual  Powers,  and  with  Causes  both  intelli 
gent  and  final? — have  we  done  with  the  Deity  save  as  impei 
sonal  fiite  or  law,  and  having  done  with  God  have  done  also 
with  Man, — for  whom  tliere  is  neither  dignity,  worth,  nor 
hope  if  there  be  no  God  ?  Quite  otherwise  would  I  seek  the 
solution  of  the  problem  of  life.  I  find  in  it  three  factors, 
co-operative  but  not  co-ordinate : — God,  Man,  and  Nature. 
What,  then,  is  the  normal  relation  of  Man  to  Nature?   or,  if 


52  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

you  please,  what  are  the  mutual  relations  of  Man  and  Nature, 
the  two  mundane  factors  in  the  problem  of  life  ? 

Without  question  we  yield  to  Nature  precedence  in  the  or- 
der of  time.  Nature  was  before  Man.  Through  immeasura- 
ble feons  the  processus  of  her  phenomena,  in  all  their  varied 
beauty,  sublimity,  and  terror,  had  moved  on  with  no  human 
spectator  to  observe  them.  The  upheaval  of  the  continents  ; 
the  slow  subsiding  of  the  seas ;  glaciers  and  icebergs,  vol- 
canic fires  and  steamy  mists — hot,  cold,  moist,  dry,  striving 
for  mastery  "  o'er  many  a  frozen,  many  a  fiery  Alp  ;"  gigan- 
tic flora  blooming  and  decaying;  monsters  of  reptile  and 
animal  life,  the  spawn  of  chaos  and  night ;  all  these  had  been, 
and  had  left  their  record  upon  the  surface  of  the  globe ; 
— inorganic  nature,  organic  nature,  life  vegetable,  insect, 
animal,  all  had  passed  on  and  on  through  timeless  epochs  of 
duration  without  one  trace  of  Man. 

And  when  we  reflect  with  the  geologist,  that  "from  the 
inconceivably  remote  period  of  the  dej^osition  of  the  Cam- 
brian rocks  the  earth  has  been  vivified  by  the  sun's  light 
and  heat,  has  been  fertilized  by  refreshing  showers  and 
washed  by  tidal  waves ;  that  the  ocean  not  only  moved  in 
orderly  oscillations  regulated,  as  now,  by  sun  and  moon,  but 
was  rippled  and  agitated  by  winds  and  storms;  that  the 
atmosphere  was  influenced  by  clouds  and  vapors,  rising, 
condensing,  and  falling  in  ceaseless  circulation,"  and  yet  that 
while  Nature  was  thus  established  in  her  ordinances,  through 
the  long,  long  ages  from  the  Cambrian  to  the  Post-Tertiary 
there  was  no  human  organism,  we  are  impressed  not  only 
with  the  recency  of  Man's  origin,  as  compared  with  the 
wliole  duration  of  the  globe,  but  with  his  physical  insignifi- 
cance upon  the  scale  of  the  universe.  In  this  view  we 
concede  the  grandeur  of  Nature,  in  her  antiquity,  her  forces, 
and  her  laws. 


MAN  NOT  A  PRODUCT  OF  NATURE.  63 

Geology,  as  wo  have  seen  already,  teaches  that  Man  began 
to  be.  But  it  also  teaches  that  prior  to  Man's  appearance 
"the  material  constitution  of  our  globe,  and  the  physical 
forces  acting  upon  it,  were  essentially  the  same  as  they  are 
now ;"  that  phosphate  of  lime,  iron,  and  albumen  had  then 
the  same  properties  as  now  ;  that  heat  and  electricity  had  the 
same  vitalizing  power,  and  that  these  materials  and  forces 
were  then  as  now  the  same  in  their  combinations  and  effects. 
But  we  can  take  these  materials  and  forces  into  the  labora- 
tory, and  there  measure,  analyze,  and  combine  them,  and 
ascertain  just  what  they  are  capable  of  effecting,  and  that 
they  are  not  capable  of  originating  the  human  organism  or 
of  producing  human  life,  even  when  directed  by  the  science 
and  the  ingenuity  of  Man  with  an  analysis  of  the  human 
subject  before  him.  Something  more  than  mere  physical 
JSTature,  even  after  long  ages  of  her  evolution,  is  required  to 
account  for  the  appearance  of  Man  upon  her  stage. 

And  we  may  go  farther.  Not  only  are  mere  physical 
forces  inadequate  to  originate  life,  but  there  is  much  to 
warrant  the  position  of  Professor  Owen,  that  these  forces  are 
in  antagonism  Avith  life,  and  tend  to  its  destruction;  that 
every  living  organism  has  "  to  maintain  a  contest  against  the 
surroundino:  afrencies  that  are  ever  tending  to  dissolve  the 
vital  bond,  and  to  subjugate  the  living  matter  to  the  ordinary 
chemical  and  physical  forces."  * 

A  change  of  climate,  a  wet  or  a  dry  season,  a  wind,  a 
flood,  is  not  only  largely  destructive  of  life,  but  such 
mutations  long  continued  may  extirpate  whole  species;  so 
that  life  depends  upon  the  self-adjusting  power  of  the 
individual  in  respect  to  the  hostile  and  destructive  forces  of 
Kature.     The  eminent  authority  just  cited  reminds  us  that 


•  "Palaeontology;"  see  Note  at  close  of  this  Lecture. 


54:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

"  with  life,  from  the  beginning,  there  has  been  death.  The 
earliest  testimony  of  the  living  thing,  Avhether  coral,  crust,  or 
shell,  in  the  oldest  fossiliferous  rock,  is  at  the  same  time  proof 
that  it  died.  Hence  the  operation  of  creative  force  has  been 
limited  to  no  one  geological  epoch ;  but  palseontological  re- 
search has  established  the  axiom  of  the  continuous  operation 
of  the  ordained  becoming  of  the  species  of  living  things." 
/  ]!^ot  natural  evolution,  but  creative  interposition  upon  the 
plane  of  Nature,  is  the  lesson  of  the  record  of  the  rocks. 

In  the  present  stage  of  science,  I  may  safely  lay  down  the 
postulate,  that  Man  had  a  beginning,  and  that  Nature  is  not 
proved  adequate  to  have  caused  that  beginning.  He  ap- 
peared upon  the  plane  of  Nature  with  an  organism  that 
Nature  fails  to  account  for,  and  with  powers  for  which  Nature 
furnishes  no  precedent. 

In  the  preceding  lecture  I  have  granted  all  that  can  be 
fairly  claimed  in  the  facts  of  science  by  the  advocates  of  the 
notion  of  development  under  whatever  phase, — especially 
the  two  cardinal  facts  of  a  progressive  order  in  the  types  of 
existence  from  the  zoophyte  up  to  the  mammal,  and  of  the 
homologies  among  different  classes  of  vertebrates,  from  fishes 
up  to  Man  ;  yet  the  theory  of  evolution  remains  a  theory,  or 
rather  an  hypothesis,  transmitted  from  the  oldest  pagan 
mythology,  and  is  no  more  an  established  dogma  of  science 
in  the  pages  of  Darwin  and  of  Huxley  than  in  the  pages  of 
the  "  Marble  Faun."  Nay,  is  not  Hawthorne  even  nearer 
the  truth  w^hen  he  ascribes  the  transformation  of  the  mute 
mystery  of  the  animal  in  the  Faun  into  the  consciously 
human  in  Donatello,  to  a  crime  prompted  by  the  passion  of 
love,  that  awakens  at  one  stroke  intelligence,  conscience, 
guilt,  death  ?  But  artistic  and  scientific  Fauns  and  fancies 
aside,  the  vital  question  is  whether  Man  was  created^  or 
.whether,  like  Topsy,  he  growed ;  whether  he  has  simply  a 


SERIAL  PROGRESSION  NOT  EVOLUTION.         "  55 

"  place  in  Nature  "  as  one  of  her  series,  or  a  position  over 
Nature  by  reason  of  personal  prerogatives  and  powers.  We 
must  be  careful  not  to  confound  things  so  widely  distinct  as 
progress  in  the  series  of  animal  life  and  the  evolution  of 
higher  species  from  pre-existing  organisms. 

It  is  a  most  unscientific  defect  of  the  theory  of  develop- 
ment, that  it  ascribes  to  known  causes  unknown  effects.  The 
causes  are  before  us ;  we  can  measure  exactly  their  power, 
can  trace  minutely  their  operations,  can  observe  their  effects. 
Yet  effects  which  they  have  never  been  known  to  produce, 
and  which  sustain  no  natural  nor  logical  relation  to  these 
causes,  are  now  assumed  to  have  proceeded  from  them  by 
some  mysterious  law  of  evolution  in  the  past,  which  has  never 
renewed  its  activity  for  the  gratification  of  a  human  observer. 
The  hypothesis  rests  upon  assumption.  It  may  be  illustrated 
by  an  analogy. 

In  a  great  pottery  one  sees  common  earthen  vessels  of 
coarse  grain  and  uncouth  shape  stored  in  the  basement ;  and 
above  these  a  pure  white  glazed  ware  of  plain  patterns ;  and 
above  this  vessels  of  artistic  forms  and  ornaments,  but  made 
of  the  ssame  simple  materials ;  and  above  these,  again,  vases 
of  porcelain  or  of  terra  cotta  of  the  most  delicate  structure  in 
their  material,  and  decorated  with  the  most  exquisite  touches 
of  art :  the  Wedgwood  vase,  that  rivals  the  choicest  speci- 
mens of  Etruscan  antiques ;  the  Sevres  china,  that  vies 
with  the  most  curious  workmanship  of  Japan ; — but,  though 
there  is  in  these  various  structures  a  progress  in  workmanship 
and  design,  one  class  is  in  no  wise  an  outgroAvth  of  another ; 
but  the  progressive  series  witnesses  for  the  inventive  skill  of 
the  artificer.  A  progressive  order  in  structure  does  not  prove 
the  development  of  each  more  advanced  individual  or  class  in 
the  series  out  of  that  which  next  preceded  it.  The  fact  that 
there  was  an  order  and  a  progress  in  the  forms  of  organic  life 


56-  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

as  these  were  brought  upon  the  stage  of  existence,  affords  no 
proof  that  there  was  a  development  of  one  form  out  of  an- 
other by  some  natural  law ;  this  may  only  unfold  the  intelli- 
gent plan  of  the  Creator  in  his  works,  the  order  of  the  Cre- 
ator's acts — the  power  of  the  j^otter  over  the  clay.  Mere 
homology  of  structure  does  not  prove  evolution.  In  the  fac- 
tories of  Lowell  one  sees  carpets  of  divers  quality,  figure, 
and  texture  woven  by  the  same  motive-power ;  but  an  intel- 
ligent will  devises  the  pattern  and  adjusts  the  loom  to  that 
combination  of  materials  which  makes  the  difference  between 
them ;  and  no  j^rinciple  of  develoj^ment,  no  accidental  or  nat- 
ural variation  will  account  for  that  difference.  And  so  in  the 
world  of  life, — Nature,  acting  like  a  vast  power-loom,  may 
work  up  her  materials  upon  some  general  plan  of  structure 
with  varieties  of  form ;  but  the  loom  does  not  originate  either 
the  structure  or  its  varieties ;  it  simply  works  up  the  materi- 
als that  are  j^ut  into  it,  according  to  the  patterns  devised  and 
set  by  the  creative  mind.  Plato  was  right  in  counting  the 
divine  ideas  the  real  substances,  and  those  conceptions  which 
originate  in  the  intelligent  will  of  God,  ISTature,  acting  as  His 
power-loom,  must  work  up  according  to  the  pattern.  She 
can  not,  of  herself,  pass  from  one  to  another,  for  ligature  is 
under  law  to  the  will  of  her  Creator.  Hence,  as  a  leading 
naturalist  has  said,  "  the  resemblances  between  the  skeletons 
of  Man  and  the  Apes  may,  to  the  uninitiated  in  science, 
ajjpear  to  make  the  transition  by  development  feasible,  yet 
they  are  of  no  weight  as  argument,  since  the  question  is  as  to 
the  fact  whether,  under  Nature's  laws,  such  a  transition  has 
taken  place  as  the  gradual  change  of  an  ape  into  a  Man,  or, 
whether  apes  were  made  to  be,  and  remain,  apes  ?  "  There  is 
no  evidence  whatever  from  any  half-and-half  specimens,  or 
from  any  traces  in  organic  remains,  of  such  a  gradation  from 
the  gorilla  up  to  the  human  organism.    The  gap  between  the 


NO  LINKS  OF  DEVELOPMENT.  57 

two  is  still  immense ;  and  homologies  are  no  part  of  the  fact 
of  a  transition  from  one  to  the  other  in  the  remote  ages  of  the 
past.  The  theory  of  such  a  transition  will  not  explain  the 
amazing  clifferenccs  between  Man  and  the  lower  creation. 
The  strongest  advocates  of  gradation  do  not  pretend  that 
any  remains  have  been  found  of  a  human  being  intermediate 
between  men  and  apes ;  or  that  take  our  race  down  apprecia- 
bly nearer  to  that  lower  form  of  animal  existence.  A  union 
now  of  the  so-called  transmuted  species  with  its  original 
could  only  issue  in  a  monstnim  horrendwn,  informe^  ingens. 
The  Duke  of  Argyll  has  stated  with  clearness  and  force 
the  objection  to  the  theory  of  development  from  the  absence 
of  intermediate  links  in  those  portions  of  the  geological  rec- 
ord which  are  the  most  consecutive  and  complete.  "  The 
Silurian  rocks,  as  regards  oceanic  life,  are  perfect  and  abun- 
dant in  the  forms  they  have  preserved,  yet  there  are  no  fish. 
The  Devonian  age  followed,  tranquilly,  and  Avithout  a  break ; 
and  in  the  Devonian  sea,  suddenly,  Fish  appear, — appear  in 
shoals,  and  in  forms  of  the  highest  and  most  perfect  type. 
There  is  no  trace  of  links  or  transitional  forms  between  the 
great  class  of  Mollusca  and  the  great  class  of  Fishes.  There 
is  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that  such  forms,  if  they  had 
existed,  can  have  been  destroyed  in  deposits  which  have 
preserved  in  wonderful  perfection  the  minutest  organisms."* 
The  same  writer   aroues  that  "  the  human  frame  diverges 

CI?  o 

from  the  structure  of  the  brutes  in  the  direction  of  2:reater 
physical  helplessness  and  weakness— a  divergence  which  it  is 
most  impossible  to  ascribe  to  mere  Xatural  Selection.  The 
unclothed  and  unprotected  condition  of  the  human  body,  its 
comparative  slowness  of  foot,  the  absence  of  teeth  adapted  for 
prehension  or  defense,  the  same  want  of  power  for  similar 


*  "Primeval  Man,"  p.  45. 


58  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

purposes  in  the  hands  and  fingers,  tlie  bhmtness  of  the  sense 
of  smell,  such  as  to  render  it  useless  for  the  detection  of  prey 
-which  is  concealed — all  these  are  features  which  stand  in 
strict  and  harmonious  relation  to  the  mental  powers  of  Man. 
But,  apart  from  these,  they  would  place  him  at  an  immense 
disadvantao-e  in  the  strus^sjle  for  existence.  .  .  .  The  lowest 
degree  of  intelligence  which  is  now  possessed  by  the  loAvest 
savage  is  not  more  than  enough  to  compensate  him  for  the 
weakness  of  his  frame.  If  that  frame  was  once  more  bestial, 
it  may  have  been  better  adapted  for  a  bestial  existence ;  but 
it  is  impossible  to  conceive  how  it  could  ever  have  emerged 
from  that  existence  by  virtue  of  Natural  Selection.  Man  must 
have  had  human  proportions  of  mind  before  he  could  afford 
to  lose  bestial  pro23ortions  of  body.  If  the  change  in  mental 
power  came  simultaneously  with  the  change  in  physical 
oro-anization,  then  it  w^as  all  that  we  can  ever  know  or  under- 
stand  of  a  new  creation.*  " 

But  it  is  claimed  that  if  Man  be  not  a  product  of  NTature  by 
a  progressive  law  of  evolution  and  selection  in  living  organ- 
isms, he  is  yet  so  completely  under  the  control  of  phj^sical 
circumstances  that  Nature  determines  his  character  by  her 
conditions,  and  rules  him  by  her  laNvs.  That  physical  geog- 
raphy affects  the  characteristics  of  race  is  patent  all  over  the 
globe  ;  and  a  sound  sociology  must  make  account  of  soil, 
climate,  vegetation,  mines,  mountains,  rivers,  seas,  as  well  as 
of  intellectual  and  moral  phenomena,  in  estimating  the  quali- 
ties and  the  prospects  of  a  people.  But  the  question  remains 
whether  the  influence  of  j^hysical  conditions  upon  human  life 
is  so  uniform  and  absolute  as  to  amount  to  a  determining 
cause?  or  does  Man  possess  an  essential  quality  of  c?om^;^^o;^, 
which  makes  him  the  proprietary  of  physical  Nature,  how- 

*  "  Primeval  Man/'  pp.  6&-79. 


MAN  THE  CONQUEROR  OF  NATURE.      59 

ever  he  himself  may  be  impressed  or  modilied  by  its  con- 
ditions? so  that — as  Marsli  expresses  it — "thongli  living  in 
physical  Nature,  lie  is  not  of  her,  but  belongs  to  a  higher 
order  of  existences  than  those  born  of  lier  womb  and  subniis- 
bIvc  to  her  dictates."  * 

We  will  here  concede,  for  the  sake  of  argument — though 
the  data  are  not  sufficient  to  authorize  the  conclusion  f — r 
that  Man  began  his  existence  on  the  earth  at  the  low 
stage  indicated  by  the  relics  found  in  the  valley  of  the 
Somme  and  the  caverns  of  Liege,  and  by  the  pile-habita- 
tions in  the  Swiss  lakes.  But  this  crude  stone-period  shows 
us  Man  —  the  most  dependent  of  the  animal  creation  — 
nevertheless  subduing  Nature  to  his  uses ;  an  artificer  in- 
venting tools,  and  planning  houses,  first  converting  stone 
into  arrow-heads,  lance-heads,  axes,  hammers;  then  invent- 
ing bronze,  and  applying  iron  to  his  purposes  by  the  laws 
of  heat ;  and  by  what  Humboldt  aptly  styles  "  the  flex- 
ibility of  his  own  nature,"  making  physical  Nature  under 
every  form  and  in  every  clime  to  minister  to  his  wants 
and  pleasures.  In  the  stone-age,  he  was  the  builder  and 
the  inventor ;  the  bridge,  the  aqueduct,  the  railway,  and 
the  telegraph  were  in  him  in  2^osse,  for  the  dominion  of  the 
world  was  his,  and  he  had  but  to  "  fight  it  out  upon  that 
line."  This  feeble,  timid  creature  came  to  share  at  first 
the  caves  and  forests  of  the  beasts — so  say,  at  least,  this 
school  of  archaeologists  ; — but  Man  advances,  and  the  beasts 
disappear  or  are  tamed.  Whole  races  of  animals,  once 
contemporary  with  Man,  have  become  nearly  or  quite  extinct, 
while  he,  so  inferior  to  them  in  size  and  strength,  has  mul- 
tiplied till  he  has  overspread  the  earth.  By  his  progress 
the  wilderness  has  been  subdued  and  made  a  fruitful  field; 

*  G.  P.  Marsh,  "  Man  aud  Nature."  See  Lecture  V. 


^0  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

marshes  have  been  drained ;  deserts  reclaimed  by  irriga- 
tion ;  and  climates  at  first  hostile  and  deadly,  have  been 
mitigated  or  counteracted  in  their  efiects  by  human  care 
and  skill.  The  ISTile  yields  up  at  last  the  mystery  of 
its  sources  ;  the  Arctic  can  not  long  hide  its  secrets ;  the 
wild  Atlantic  consents  to  be  bound  by  cables  to  either 
shore,  and  is  linked  to  the  Pacific  by  iron  bands  that 
span  a  continent.  Man  subordinates  the  whole  creation 
to  his  own  uses.  He  gathers  the  fruits  of  the  earth, 
the  products  of  its  mines,  the  treasures  of  the  sea;  he 
emjiloys  the  subtile  agencies  of  light,  the  powers  of  heat 
and  of  motion,  the  fearful  velocity  and  energy  of  the 
lightning.  According  to  his  latitude  and  his  wants,  he 
employs  the  reindeer,  the  dog,  the  horse,  the  ox,  the  buf- 
falo, the  camel,  the  elephant  for  transportation,  or  extracts 
from  fire  and  water  the  motive  power  of  steam.  He  gets 
light  from  the  fat  of  sheep  and  oxen,  the  blubber  of  the 
whale,  the  coal  of  the  mountains,  the  resin  of  trees,  the 
rivers  of  oil  in  the  bowels  of  the  earth.  He  clothes  himself 
with  fabrics  woven  from  the  skins  of  animals,  the  plumage 
of  birds,  the  pods  and  fibers  of  plants  and  trees.  In  a  word, 
he  makes  all  Nature  contribute  to  his  use,  his  comfort, 
his  taste,  his  pleasure,  and  this  by  the  mere  brain-power 
lodo-ed  in  him  as  lord  over  the  creation.  If  one  would 
realize  man's  position  over  ^b^Tature,  I  know  not  where  to 
study  it  to  more  advantage  than  in  the  Smithsonian  In- 
stitute and  in  the  Patent  Office  at  Washington: — in  the 
one  you  have  an  exponent  of  Man's  comprehension  of 
Nature  through  science;  in  the  other,  of  his  combinations 
and  adaptations  of  Nature  through  invention.  The  one 
shows  his  mastery  of  the  principles  of  Nature,  the  other 
his  mastery  of  the  forces  of  Nature.  At  the  Smithsonian, 
you  see  in  its  museum  how  Man  has    studied,  subdued, 


MAN  THE  ONLY  INVENTOR.  61 

and  classified  tlie  whole  animal  kingdom  ;  in  its  labora 
tories  you  see  liow  Man  lias  investigated  tlie  secrets  of 
Nature,  and  learned  to  measure  and  apply  her  forces ;  in 
its  librar}^,  you  see  what  knowledge  Man  lias  amassed  con- 
cerning the  world  in  which  he  lives  ;  and  in  every  depart- 
ment you  see  his  brain  stamped  upon  all  as  proof  of  his 
lordship  over  all. 

In  the  Patent  Office,  you  see  all  material  substances  and 
mechanical  powers  combined  and  adjusted  in  countless 
forms  of  ingenuity  for  the  benefit  of  Man.  How  many 
contrivances  for  heat,  for  light,  for  motion,  for  clothing,  for 
building,  for  navigation,  for  printing,  for  safety,  for  defense ; 
how  many  devices  of  art  and  taste  for  ornament  and 
pleasure ;  liow  many  varieties  in  the  application  of  the  same 
principles  and  materials — yet  every  one  of  the  myriad  of 
inventions  in  these  lon<x  corridors  crowded  with  models 
is  the  creation  of  the  human  mind.  No  gorilla  ever  took 
out  a  patent,  or  made  any  improvement  upon  the  condition 
in  which  he  was  born ;  no  man-like  ape  ever  developed  out 
of  Nature  anything  beyond  what  his  instinct  taught  him  at 
the  first.  No  law  or  process  of  Nature  ever  produced  a 
machine.  All  these  materials,  all  these  agents  and  forces, 
all  these  possibilities  of  adaptation  and  usefulness,  lay  slum- 
bering in  waste,  in  quarries  and  mines  of  the  earth,  in  the 
bosom  of  unconscious  Nature,  until  Man,  standing  upon 
Nature  and  above  it,  wrought  them  into  shajDC  for  his  own 
use  and  made  them  his  servants.  "VYho  can  walk  the  cor- 
ridors of  the  Patent  Office  and  deny  that  Man  is  lord  over 
Nature?  Where  anion 2:  these  models  would  you  arrano-e 
Man  as  having  a  place  in  that  Nature  over  which  he  reigns 
supreme  ? 

Man  is  the  user  of  Nature.  Always  and  everywhere  is 
Nature  used  by  him  for  his  own  ends.     But,  as  Socrates 


62  MAN :  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

argues  with  Alcibiacles,  "  he  who  uses,  and  that  which  is 
used,  are  diiferent " — the  currier  Avho  uses  the  cuttiug-knife 
difierent  from  the  .instrument  he  uses,  and  difi'erent  also  from 
the  hands  and  the  eyes  which  he  uses  in  his  work.  Xor  can 
Ave  rise  above  the  grand  simplicity  of  Socrates'  definition  of 
a  man.  "  The  Man  is  that  which  uses  the  body  : — now,  does 
anything  use  the  body  but  the  mind?  Is  not  the  mind, 
therefore,  the  Man  ?  "  We  answer  with  Alcibiades,  "  The 
Mind  alone." 

To  clinch  the  argument,  here  comes  in  the  fact  that  Man's 
conquest  of  Nature  is  in  the  ratio  of  his  spiritual  develop- 
ment. The  higher  civilization  upon  our  globe  is  nearly 
coterminous  with  Christianity.  This  correspondence  is  not 
accidental,  but  illustrates  the  law  of  Man's  nature  declared 
at  the  beginning.  As  the  oifspring  of  God  he  was  invested 
with  dominion  over  the  world ;  by  the  fall  he  lost  his  spirit- 
ual supremacy,  which  is  again  restored  through  the  new  life 
in  Christ. 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  Phoenicians  and  the  Egyptians  had 
arts  now  lost  to  us,  whose  products  are  curiosities  in  the 
scientific  museums  of  the  nineteenth  century.  I  do  not 
forget  that  the  arch  once  called  Roman  is  as  old  as  Egypt, 
and  the  aqueduct  as  old  as  Tyre;  that  glass  was  molten  on 
the  shore  of  Phoenicia,  and  linen  spun  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Nile ;  that  modern  architecture  is  so  largely  a  copy  of  tlie 
schools  of  Greece,  and  that  in  the  modelinG:  of  marble  and 
bronze,  antiquity  is  still  our  teacher.  In  the  time  of  Solomon 
mankind  had  already  "found  out  the  knowledge  of  witty 
inventions,"  and  "of  the  making  of  books  th(Te  was  no  end." 
Yet  the  records  and  monuments  of  antiquity  show  us,  in  the 
main,  the  multiplication  of  works  of  physical  strength  rather 
than  inventions  of  practical  utility.  A  reaping  machine 
traversing  the  delta  of  the  Nile,  a  steam  pump  to  irrigate 


CHRISTIAMTY  A  CIVILIZING  POWER.  63 

the  soil  after  the  yearly  inundation,  would  have  done  more  to 
assert  Man's  dominion  over  Xature  than  tlie  piling  up  of 
stones  into  pyramids  and  the  carving  of  tombs  and  temples 
from  the  solid  rock.  Yet  the  mechanic  arts  of  ancient 
Egypt,  the  arts  of  practical  life  as  depicted  upon  her  monu- 
ments, were  in  a  comparatively  unscientific  stage  long  after 
the  pyramid  of  Cheops  was  pointed  to  the  sky.  Whatever 
the  land  of  the  Pharaohs  now  possesses  in  scientific  improve- 
ments applied  to  the  uses  of  practical  life,  is  not  an  inherit- 
ance from  her  ancient  civilization,  but  a  benefit  imjoorted 
from  Christian  lands. 

In  countries  where  the  influence  of  Christianity  is  marked, 
we  notice  a  rapid  and  constant  progress  in  Man's  dominion 
over  Nature.  In  all  such  countries  improved  methods  of 
agriculture  are  making  the  earth  more  and  more  tributary  to 
the  sustenance  of  Man.  Science  has  instructed  the  husband- 
man in  the  qualities  and  capabilities  of  different  soils,  and  the 
means  of  enriching  them  so  as  to  enhance  their  productive 
value.  Thus  the  increased  productiveness  of  the  earth  is 
made  to  keep  pace  with  increased  density  of  population.  Im- 
proved implements  of  husbandry  economize  the  labor  of  Man, 
and  develop  more  fully  and  perfectly  the  fruits  of  the  earth. 
A  subsoil  plow,  and  a  common  force-pump  for  irrigation  in 
the  dry  season,  would  cause  the  plain  of  Sharon  in  Palestine 
once  more  to  blossom  as  the  rose.  But  the  Arab  fatalist 
continues  to  scratch  the  earth  with  a  stick,  and  water  it  with 
his  crazy  creaking  bucket ;  to  tread  out  grain  by  the  feet  of 
cattle,  and  winnow  it  by  a  shovel  in  the  wind.  Tliere  is  no  ' 
progress  in  the  subjugation  of  Xature  visible  under  the  rule 
of  Mohammedanism ;  hardly  more  is  to  bo  seen  where 
Christianity  has  degenerated  into  a  superstition  and  a  name. 
But  wherever  Christianity  exists  in  tolerable  purity  and 
power,  there   the   earth  seems   gladly  to  acknowledge   the 


64  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

dominion  of  Man.  Christianity  inspires  a  pliilantln-opy  that 
makes  the  elevation  of  the  working  classes  its  study  and 
care,  and  that  infuses  into  political  economy  the  principles 
of  the  highest  morality. 

Under  the  influence  of  Christianity,  Man  regains  his 
dominion  over  Nature  by  the  conquest  of  physical  evils. 
Such  evils  are  better  comprehended  and  therefore  more  easily 
subdued.  The  lightning  and  the  storm,  once  the  terror  of 
the  pagan  mind,  are  measured  in  their  nature  and  effects, 
and  met  with  a  fearless  will  and  with  adequate  defenses. 
The  marshes  that  once  bred  disease  and  death  are  drained 
and  converted  into  meadows  and  orchards.  The  jungles 
that  once  harbored  wild  beasts  and  venomous  reptiles  are 
cleared  and  converted  into  fruitful  fields.  The  desert  is 
made  to  pour  forth  water  from  Artesian  wells.  No  evil  is 
lonoier  deemed  insurmountable  to  Christian  civilization. 
Livingstone  goes  forth  anew  Avith  the  imjjlements  and 
appointments  of  that  civilization  to  subdue  and  renovate  the 
barbarism  he  has  explored  in  the  wilds  of  Africa.  The 
steamboat  shall  j^enetrate  the  waters  of  that  vast  continent, 
and  the  clearings  of  civilized  men  shall  sweep  pestilence 
from  its  shores.  The  railroad  which  has  already  conquered 
the  Egyptian  desert,  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  the  salt 
wastes  of  Utah,  shall  yet  conquer  and  reclaim  tlie  vast 
wastes  from  the  Mediterranean  to  the  Euphrates.  Wliere- 
ever  a  Christian  civilization  advances,  its  paths  drop  fatness ; 
the  valleys  are  covered  with  corn,  the  liills  are  girded  with 

joy- 
Under  the  influence  of  Christianity,  Man  regains  dominion 
over  Nature  through  the  development  of  the  interior 
resources  of  the  earth.  There  were  quarries  and  mines  in 
ancient  times.  The  Egyptians  worked  veins  of  copper  in 
the  peninsula  of  Sinai  before  the  days  of  Joseph.     The  gold 


CHRISTIANITY  A  CIVILIZING  POWER.         '     65 

of  Ophir  and  tlic  pearls  of  the  Indian  Sea  enriched  the 
coffers  of  Solomon.  But  chance  or  the  diviner's  rod  discov- 
ered such  treasures,  and  unskilled  labor  could  only  scratch 
their  surface.  The  science  of  Geology  has  been  born  within 
our  day ;  and  now  there  is  not  a  Christian  state  which  does 
not  make  a  geological  survey  a  guide  to  the  resources  of 
mineral  wealth  hidden  beneath  its  soil.  The  intelligent  and 
profitable  working  of  coal  and  iron,  and  of  the  various 
minerals  and  ores  which  the  all-provident  Creator  has  stored 
against  Man's  time  of  need,  is  a  result  and  an  attendant  of 
Christian  civilization.  The  semi-civilized  nations  of  the 
Eastern  world  universally  look  upon  the  Franks — the  repre-' 
sentatives  of  European  Christianity — as  having  a  special 
insight  into  Nature. 

Under  the  influence  of  Christianity,  Man  regains  dominion 
over  Nature  through  the  discovery  of  occult  principles  and 
their  application  to  practical  uses.  In  this  field  Man  has 
achieved  his  greatest  triumphs  over  Nature  by  coming  at  the 
very  secrets  of  her  power,  and  turning  these  to  his  own 
account.  How  long^  had  Nature  hidden  these  secrets  from 
the  eye  of  Man  !  From  the  day  wdien  first  the  waters 
gathered  into  vapor  above  the  seas,  there  has  existed  a  force 
"which  could  convert  the  sea  and  the  land  into  a  highway  of 
commerce  and  of  travel  for  Man.  From  the  day  when  he 
first  brought  fire  into  contact  w^ith  water,  he  had  in  these 
opposing  agents  a  powder  which  he  might  employ  to  subdue 
Nature  in  every  form.  From  the  day  when  the  first  stroke 
of  liMitningr  on  a  tree  terrified  iNIan  with  its  instantaneous 
power,  he  had  within  his  reach  an  agent  that  could  make  his 
own  thought  instantaneous  and  almost  omnipresent  through 
the  world.  Yet  Man  who  was  invested  Avith  dominion  over 
these  forces  has  lived,  and  labored,  and  suil'ered,  and  died  in 
all  the  generations   of   six    thousand   years,   without    once 


6Q  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

suspecting  that  the  keys  of  his  sovereignty  over  NTature 
were  in  the  vapor  steaming  from  his  kettle,  and  in  the 
magnet  which  he  knew  only  as  a  toy.  Vainly  did  he  knock 
at  the  door  of  Nature  and  summon  her  to  disclose  her 
secrets ;  she  was  dumb  to  force  and  to  command.  But  when 
once  he  learned  the  *'  Open  Sesame,"  her  doors  flew  back 
on  golden  hinges,  and  not  Aladdin's  lamp  disclosed  such 
jewels  as  in  the  crown  of  glory  and  honor  which  the  Creator 
had  here  laid  up  for  Man.  "  Thou  madest  him  to  have 
dominion  over  the  works  of  thy  hands ;  thou  hast  put  all 
things  under  his  feet ;  all  sheep  and  oxen,  yea  and  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
whatsoever  passeth  through  the  paths  of  the  seas." 

This  discovery  of  the  occult  principles  of  Nature,  and  the 
application  of  those  principles  to  the  service  of  Man,  is  the 
highest  triumph  of  the  spiritual  over  the  material.  A  prin- 
ciple or  law  of  Nature  is  the  will  of  the  Almighty  impressed 
upon  and- acting  through  material  forms.  Science  teaches  us 
that  these  occult  jDrinciples  of  Nature  are  not  spontaneous, 
self-originated,  independent,  self-sustaining  forces  inherent  in 
matter  as  such,  but  when  traced  back  into  their  remotest 
confines  are  still  laws  impressed  upon  matter  by  a  planning 
mind.  It  teaches,  moreover,  that  these  laws  pertain  to  and 
are  to  be  sought  in  the  molecules,  the  minutest  particles  of 
which  bodies  are  supposed  to  be  composed.  And  when  we 
begin  to  touch  upon  such  laws,  we  come  into  an  awful  near- 
ness to  Him  who  framed  them.  It  is  as  if  one  groping  in  a 
cavern  found  himself  upon  the  verge  of  a  precipice,  and 
reaching  forth  at  that  instant  should  lay  hold  on  something 
in  the  dark,  and  feel  the  pressure  of  an  invisible  hand. 
Here,  in  the  arcana  of  Nature,  God  takes  us  by  the  hand,  and 
giving  us  the  laws  by  which  He  governs  the  world.  He  gives 
us  dominion  over  the  works  of  His  hands.     How  marvelous 


LAWS  OF  NATURE  ARE   GOD'S  VOLITIONS.         67 

has  been  the  growth  of  that  dominion  from  the  day  when  a 
poor  Frencliman  was  shut  up  in  the  madhouse  for  saying  that 
lie  could  move  ships  and  carriages  by  steam,  to  the  day 
when  Stephenson  ran  a  locomotive  sixty  miles  an  hour ! 
How  great  the  march  of  that  dominion  from  1744,  when 
Franklin  drew  down  the  lightning  by  his  kite  and  key,  to 
1801,  when  Kew  York  and  San  Francisco  were  broucrht 
.    together  by  an  instantaneous  flash  of  thought ! 

Some  would  ascribe  this  superiority  in  science  and  inven- 
tion, which  is  so  marked  in  modern  Christian  nations,  to 
what  is  termed  superiority  of  race.  But  were  ever  races,  as 
such,  superior  to  the  Roman  and  Greek  races,  that  gave  law 
and  art,  eloquence,  poetry,  and  philosophy,  to  the  world  and 
to  time  ?  Besides,  where  and  what  were  the  present  superior 
races  of  men  before  they  were  touched  and  invigorated  by 
Christianity?  What  were  Gaul  and  Britain  and  Germany 
but  the  seats  of  a  barbarism  that  the  conquering  Romans 
scorned  ?  This  wondrous  development  of  Man  in  the  way  of 
material  progress  was  preceded  by  the  moral  renovation  of 
these  dominant  races  through  the  Gospel ;  and  it  belongs 
emphatically  to  the  era  of  a  free,  spiritual,  and  practical 
Christianity,  ushered  in  by  the  Reformation.  The  renovation 
of  Man's  spiritual  nature  by  Christianity  has  restored  him 
to  his  original  supremacy  over  the  physical  world,  as  the 
oftspring  of  God. 

The  contemplation  of  Man  as  a  builder  and  inventor,  and 
therefore  the  superior  of  Nature,  even  in  his  material  wants 
and  conditions,  brings  him  before  us  as  an  Intelligence,  and 
therefore  as  a  Spiritual  Povrcr.  When  we  rise  from  the 
sphere  of  instinct  into  that  of  intelligence,  we  leave  the 
range  of  material  laws  for  that  of  spiritual  powers ;  and  the 
position  of  the  brain  in  Man  for  guidance  and  control,  with 
its  size  and  power,  and  its  improvable  quality,  marks  an  im- 


68  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

passable  distinction  between  Man  and  the  whole  animal  crea- 
tion. "  In  the  living  beings  of  former  ages,"  Avrites  Professor 
Dana,  "there  had  been  intelligence  and  a  low  grade  of  reason 
— affections  as  between  the  dam  and  her  cub,  and  the  joyous- 
ness  of  life  and  activity  in  the  sporting  tribes  of  the  land. 
But  there  had  been  no  living  soul  that  could  look  beyond 
time  into  eternity,  from  the  finite  toward  the  infinite,  from 
the  world  around  to  the  world  within  and  God  above.  This 
was  the  new  creation — as  new  as  when  life  began ;  a  spiritual 
element  as  diverse  from  the  life  of  the  brute  as  life  itself  is 
diverse  from  inorganic  existence."  And  this  new  life  was 
tyi^ified,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  cephalized  structure  of  Man,* 
who  from  the  first  appeared  as  a  creature  formed  in  all  his 
parts  for  the  service  of  his  brain,  and  thus  for  rational  domin- 
ion over  inorganic  matter  and  mere  physical  life ;  a  creature 

who, 

" endued 
"With  sanctity  of  reason,  might  erect 
His  stature,  and  upright,  with  front  serene 
Govern  the  rest,  self-knowing ;  and  from  thence 
Magnanimous  to  correspond  with  heaven." 

Man  has  been  defined  as  an  Intelligence  served  by  organs ; 
and  his  reasoning  intelligence  is  a  characteristic  that  sepa- 
rates him  from  the  brute  creation  by  a  chasm  that  they  can 
never  cross.  The  contrast  is  most  striking  when  the  human 
mind  is  directed  to  a  point  where  the  instinct  of  an  animal  is 
exhibited  in  the  highest  perfection.  Only  by  the  refined  and 
severe  method  of  the  calculus  was  it  ascertained  that  to  se- 
cure the  most  room  and  strength  upon  a  given  space,  with 
the  least  waste  of  material,  the  builder  must  adopt  the  exact 
angles  which   the   bee   forms  by  instinct.     But   how  much 


*  Cuvier's  great  discovery,  •which  Pi'of.  Owen  styles  the  "  law  of  the  subordination 
of  the  different  organic  characters  to  the  condition  of  the  whole  animal,"  flnde  its 
highest  example  in  the  subordination  of  Man's  body  to  his  brain. 


INSTINCT  NOT  A  REASONING  INTELLIGENCE.      69 

greater  the  mind  of  Newton  that  grasped  the  principles,  and 
defined  the  laws,  and  gave  the  rules  of  calculation,  than  the 
instinct  of  the  bee  in  doing  its  work  !  How  much  greater 
the  mind  of  Michel  Angelo  shaping  St.  Peter's  to  liis  thought, 
and  then  crystallizing  the  conception  into  stone,  than  the  in- 
stinct of  the  bee  building  its  cell !  Whence  came  the  mind 
of  Newton,  the  mind  of  Michel  Angelo  ?  Was  this  devel- 
oped upward  from  the  instinct  of  the  bee  ?  or  was  it  a  created 
intelligence,  the  offspring  of  God  ?  And  what  shall  we  say 
of  this  MIND  of  Man  ? — its  power  of  reasoning,  which  grasps 
the  facts  of  the  external  world  and  the  truths  of  the  inner 
world  of  consciousness,  and  weaves  them  into  consecutive 
chains  of  ideas,  and  builds  up  fabrics  of  thought  that  will 
stand  though  the  physical  universe  shall  fall  ? — the  Mind 
which  hides  itself  within  its  net-work  of  nerve  and  sinew  and 
muscle,  like  an  invisible  spider,  alive  to  the  least  touch  or  ap- 
proach from  without,  quick  to  seize  upon  and  appropriate  as 
its  food  whatever  comes  within  its  range,  throwing  out  new 
filaments  to  bind  each  floating  atom  of  the  real  world,  and 
then  spinning  from  its  mysterious  depths  a  new  world  of 
thought  and  imagination,  of  ethereal  texture  and  prismatic 
beauty,  itself  the  living  center  of  the  whole  ?  What  shall  we 
say  of  this  Mind  that,  from  a  few  arbitrary  characters  and  a 
few  articulate  sounds,  constructs  a  language  that  expresses 
thought,  that  stirs  emotion,  that  kindles  passions  or  allays 
them — language  that  makes  the  printed  page  glow  with  the 
fire  and  beauty  of  jDoetry,  that  makes  the  air  pulsate  with  the 
throbs  of  eloquence  ? — this  Mind  that  from  a  few  arbitrary 
figures,  that  you  may  count  upon  your  fingers,  constructs  the 
abstract  science  of  mathematics,  by  which  it  weighs  the 
mountains  in  scales  and  the  hills  in  a  balance ;  by  Avhich  it 
measures  the  velocity  of  light  and  the  distances  and  magni- 
tudes of  the  stars  ? — this  Mind  of  Man  that,  with  unfaltering 


70  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

confidence,  determines  by  mathematical  law  that  the  equilib- 
rium of  our  solar  system  demands  the  existence  of  another 
planet  yet  unseen,  then  points  the  telescope  and  finds  it 
where  it  ought  to  be  ? — this  Mind  that  takes  the  wings  of 
the  morning  and  out-travels  light ;  that  flies  backward  to  the 
beo-innino:  and  forward  to  the  unknown  ;  that  counts  all  time 
and  space  its  home,  and  dares  look  forth  upon  the  Infinite  ? 
From  a  few  letters  of  the  alphabet  Homer  made  a  poem 
whose  rhythm  still  beats  upon  the  shores  of  Time,  while  the 
sea  Avashes  a  desolate  beach  where  Troy  once  stood ;  Plato 
gave  shape  to  thoughts  that  live,  while  Athens  is  falling  to 
decay ;  the  creations  of  mind  survive,  though  temples  and 
pyramids  perish  ;  and  though  the  heavens  should  pass  away, 
and  the  stars  be  seen  no  more,  the  system  of  mathematical 
order  and  beauty  that  Newton  formed  from  a  few  abstract 
lines  and  numbers,  would  remain  for  the  admiring  contempla- 
tion of  the  Mind,  overarching  it  with  a  firmament  of  its  own. 
This  Mind  of  Man,  with  its  powers  of  Reason,  Imagination, 
Memory,  Will,— with  its  hopes  and  fears,  its  joys  and  loves, — 
this  Mind  that  Joiotcs  itself,  and  that  dominates  all  matter 
and  all  life  without  itself, — can  it  be  less  than  the  immediate 
offspring  of  God  ?  If  Man  be  over  Nature  as  a  power,  is  not 
God  more  than  Nature,  more  than  law,  more  than  fate  ?  Is 
not  Man  himself  a  proof  of  the  supernatural  ? 

Man,  whose  physical  origin  can  not  be  traced  to  any  evolu- 
tion of  natural  law,  whose  rudest  beginnings  of  life  were  an 
assertion  of  his  dominion  over  Nature,  whose  functions  as  an 
Intelligence  ally  him  to  the  realm  of  spiritual  powers,  is  sep- 
arated yet  more  decisively  from  the  control  of  Nature  in  the 
sphere  of  Consciousness.  That  is  an  untenable  and  absurd 
monopoly  of  the  term  science  that  would  restrict  it  to  phys- 
ical phenomena,  and  would  treat  of  these  as  the  only  realities 
in  the  universe.     Indeed,  we  can  have  no  certainty  concerning 


CONSCIOUSNESS  A  GROUND  OF  CERTAINTY.       71 

that  which  is  witliout,  save  upon  the  assumed  certainty  of 
that  which  is  within.  All  knowle(lo:e  from  tlie  Avidest  circle 
comes  back  at  last  to  the  knowing  suhject  as  its  pivot ;,  and 
the  physicist  who  rej^oses  all  his  faith  upon  Xatnre,  would 
have  the  unscientific  layman  receive  Nature  itself  upon  faith 
in  his  observation  and  veracity — in  other  Avords,  faith  in  hiin- 
self  as  an  intelligence.  Now,  this  selfhood  is  the  essence  of 
the  Man,  the  conscious  person,  the  Ego,  who  knows  himself, 
and  knows  that  he  knows ;  and  within  himself  there  is  a 
domain  of  science,  of  nobler  phenomena,  and  of  no  less  cer- 
tain determinations,  than  the  phj^sical  universe.  ""When  I 
was  young,  Cebes,"  says  Socrates,  in  the  Phsedo,  "  it  is  sur- 
prising how  earnestly  I  desired  that  species  of  science  which 
they  call  physical.  For  it  appeared  to  me  pre-eminently  ex- 
cellent in  briuQ-inoj  us  to  know  the  causes  of  each,  throusjh 
what  each  is  produced  and  destroyed,  and  exists.  But  ha|> 
pening  to  hear  some  one  read  in  a  book,  which  he  said  was 
of  Anaxagoras,  that  it  is  Intelligence  which  is  the  j^arent  of 
order,  and  cause  of  all  things,  I  was  pleased  with  this  cause, 
and  it  seemed  to  me  to  be  well  that  Intellisrence  was  the 
cause  of  all,  and  I  considered  that,  were  it  so,  the  ordering 
Intelligence  ordered  all  things,  and  placed  each  thing  there 
where  it  was  best."  The  science  that  deals  with  Intellio-cnce 
as  its  subject  is  of  a  higher  order  than  that  which  deals  with 
physical  phenomena  and  their  laws.  The  science  of  Mind  is 
higher  than  the  science  of  matter,  and  the  science  of  Morals 
is  higher  than  either,  in  the  nature  of  its  subject  and  the 
o;randeur  of  its  results. 

Nor  can  we  concede  to  physicists  that  theirs  is  j^eculiarly 
the  science  of  certainties.  Personalitv  and  free-will,  o-iven  in 
consciousness,  are  as  certain  as  are  the  mountains.  Riirht 
and  wrong,  truth,  justice,  moral  law,  are  as  certain  as  are  any 
facts  in  the  physical  vrorld.     When,  therefore,  Dr.  Draper  or 


72  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Herbert  Silencer  would  persuade  me  that  I  am  shaped  and 
governed  as  an  atom  by  purely  physical  causes,  I  assert  my 
conscious  personality  and  free-will.  If  he  seeks  to  contra- 
vene these  by  physical  laws,  I  still  assert  them,  and  defy  him 
to  set  them  aside.  For  if  tlie  Eo-o  does  not  exist  as  a 
conscious  subject,  the  perception  of  the  non-Ego,  which  is 
Nature,  is  an  impossibility;  or,  as  Hamilton  expresses  it, 
"  once  Consciousness  is  ruined  as  an  instrument,  Philosophy 
is  extinct." 

The  materialist  insists  that  I  shall  believe  only  that  which 
can  be  tested  by  the  evidence  of  the  senses,  and  reduces  the 
operations  of  mind  itself  to  manifestations  of  the  physical 
organization  with  which  it  is  connected.  But  in  recording 
observations  and  making  experiments  that  extend  over  a 
considerable  period  of  time,  he  assumes  his  own  identity 
through  memory  and  consciousness — his  personal  existence 
as  an  intelligcent  observer — and  he  demands  of  me  that  I 
shall  accept  the  results  of  his  observations  upon  faith  in  his 
intelligence,  his  competence,  his  accuracy,  his  fidelity ; — in  a 
word,  he  demands  of  me  faith  in  human  testimony  concerning 
that  which  in  theory  he  holds  should  be  accepted  only  upon 
the  strictest  scientific  evidence.  Now  the  certainty  of  the 
facts  of  consciousness  which  the  materialist  tacitly  assumes, 
while  he  rejects  them  in  theory,  may  be  no  less  conclusive 
and  absolute  than  the  certainty  of  physical  fiicts  observed  by 
the  senses. 

I  7c}ioio  that  I  am,  that  I  think,  that  I  will,  that  I  am  free. 
I  know  that  there  is  a  Right,  a  Justice,  a  moral  Law.  I 
accept  whatever  facts  the  materialist  brings  me  from  his 
varied  and  profound  researches  in  the  domain  of  physics; 
but  when  he  seeks  to  bind  me  with  these  as  with  chains,  I 
say  to  him.  There  are  other  facts  also,  as  certain  as  yours, 
and  nobler,  grander  far  than  yours  ;   these  I  know,  and  these 


THE  NOBILITY  OF  VIRTUE.  73 

you  too  woiikl  perceive,  if,  like  Socrates,  you  would  cease  to 
be  enamored  of  mere  phenomena,  and  rise  to  the  sjDhere  of 
Intelligence.  When  physical  science  attempts  to  dogmatize 
over  mind  and  over  morality,  vre  must  bid  it  back  to  its 
place,  by  reason  of  the  higher  nobility  of  a  Mind  that  knows 
itself,  and  that  is  capable  of  Virtue. 

I  have  at  last  spoken  the  word  that  unlocks  to  us  Man's 
sj^iritual  dignity; — a  being  capable  of  Virtue  can  not  be 
included  within  the  category  of  Nature.  Say,  if  you  will, 
that  the  human  intelligence  is  but  a  function  of  the  brain,  and 
is  therefore  a  purely  physical  development;  none  dare  affirm 
that  moral  action  is  due  to  physical  causation  ;  for  to  ascribe 
an  action  to  physical  control  is  to  take  away  the  morality  of 
the  action,  to  make  right  and  wrong,  good  and  evil,  impos- 
sible as  moral  qualities.  And  Avhat  degradation  of  Man  and 
of  the  universe  so  sad,  so  vile  as  that  which  would  annihi- 
late Virtue  by  denying  to  the  soul  the  power  of  moral  choice 
and  its  allegiance  to  moral  law  !  "  Two  objects,"  said  Kant, 
"  fill  my  soul  with  an  ever-increasing  admiration  and  resj^ect 
— above  us  the  starry  heaven,  within  us  the  moral  law." 
But  Pantheism  effaces  the  moral  law  from  the  soul  by 
denying  to  the  soul  that  personality  which  is  the  essence  of 
morality  and  of  freedom ;  instead  of  divinizing  Man  it  de- 
grades him  to  a  soulless  atom  in  a  godless  universe ;  for  the 
negation  of  personality  makes  God  himself  an  incident  of  the 
universe,  a  germ  of  life  and  motion  in  process  of  development, 
an  unfinished  Deity  struggling  for  expansion  through  physical 
motion,  and  "  God,  minus  the  world,  an  impossibility." 

All  that  is  grand  and  heroic  in  human  life  and  history, 

Right,  Duty,  Justice,  Liberty,  V^irtue, — all  for  which  human 

souls  have  braved  physical  torture  and  mocked  at  death,  all 

for  which  this  Nation   struggled  four  weary  bloody  years, 

with  the  life-blood  of  its  bravest  and  best — is  a  delusion,  a 

4 


T4:  MAN:   IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

nonentity,  if  Man  be  under  "bonds  to  Nature  without  person- 
ality, will,  consciousness  of  his  own.  Better,  then,  build 
altars  to  fire,  flood,  and  fate,  than  memorial  halls  to  heroes 
who  fought  for  the  fiction  of  Freedom  and  the  Right.  Nay, 
nay,  there  is  a  virtue,  for  there  is  a  soul. 

If  some  Comus,  master  of  the  rocks  and  woods,  should 
tempt  us  with  his  "  crystal  glass  " — distilled  from  Nature's 
laboratory — by  which 

"  The  human  countenance, 
The  express  resemblance  of  the  gods,  is  changed 
Into  some  brutish  form  of  wolf,  or  bear, 
Or  ounce,  or  tiger,  hog,  or  bearded  goat;" 

or  should  wave  over  us  his  sensuous  wand,  till 

"  Nerves  are  all  chaiued  up  in  alabaster ; " 

and  having  thus  "immancled"  its  "corporal  rind"  with  his 

compelling  arts,  should  attempt   the  freedom  of  the  mind 

itself — though  Reason,  Motion,  Will  should  fail  us.  Virtue 

could  yet  deliver  from  the  spell ; — Virtue  the  eternal  bride 

of  Heaven,  Virtue  that  makes  the  soul  like  herself  heavenly 

and  immortal.     She  alone  is  free : 

"  She  can  teach  3'^e  how  to  climb 
Higher  than  the  sphery  chime ; 
Or  if  Virtue  feeble  were, 
Heaven  itself  would  stoop  to  her." 

To  sum  up  all,  if  you  demand  proof  that  Man  is  a  spiritual 
being,  and  therefore  5wj9er-natural,  I  give  you  Language — 
not  as  Huxley  would  persuade  us,  the  mere  product  of  the 
nerve-force  of  certain  muscles  acting  upon  the  structural  pe- 
culiarity of  the  glottis,  but  language  as  a  psychical  creation, 
whose  particles  and  connectives^are  links  of  intelligence  hold- 
ing speech  together  under  the  laws  of  mind — language,  the 
very  textile  of  the  soul,  of  all  Man's  products  the  least  physical 
or  mechanical.  I  give  you  Conscience,  discriminating  right 
from  wrong,  and  giving  quality  to  actions  from  their  motives. 


EDWARD  EVERETT,  A  TYPICAL  MAN.  75 

I  give  you  Zm<?,  dictated  by  reason,  "by  justice,  and  addressed 
to  the  moral  sentiments  of  the  soul.  I  give  you  Beligion, 
with  its  i:>romptings  of  reverence,  of  worship,  of  duty  and  love, 
and  its  hope  of  immortality  that  conquers  life's  deadliest  fears, 
and  gives  to  its  sorrows  a  supernal  dignity.    • 

Our  total  argument  for  Man's  supremacy  maybe  embodied 
in  one  concrete  Man,  a  fitting  type  of  the  normal  sovereign  of 
Nature.  Of  comely  person,  of  symmetrical  brain,  of  opulent 
and  varied  powers ;  in  point  of  physical  development  and  of 
psychical  aptitude  and  endowment  one  of  the  best  products 
of  j^ature's  handiwork ;  loving  Nature  as  the  poet  loves  her, 
as  the  artist  loves  her,  obeying  her  precepts  of  health,  study- 
ing her  principles  of  order  and  of  beauty,  he  nevertheless  rose 
above  Nature  as  a  king,  and  swayed  his  scepter  over  wide 
realms  of  language,  of  thought,  and  of  mind.  Travel  made 
him  cosmopolitan  in  taste,  sentiment,  and  culture,  so  that  he 
disproved,  in  his  own  broad  and  genial  humanity,  all  control 
of  local  material  causes  over  a  true-born  human  spirit ;  his- 
tory made  him  a  iiimiliar  citizen  of  Greece  and  of  Rome,  com- 
panion of  their  choicest  schools ;  philosophy  acquainted  him 
with  all  that  was  great  in  human  thought  and  profound  and 
subtile  in  human  reasoning ;  and  thus  absorbing  into  himself 
all  countries,  all  nations,  all  ages,  all  thinkers  and  actors  on 
the  stage  of  life  as  the  common  property  of  a  kingly  soul,  he 
made  Nature  tributary  to  his  will  in  the  service  of  Humanity. 
Beneath  his  wand  cereals  and  grasses  waved  for  the  agricul- 
turist, streams  leaped  to  serve  the  manufacturer,  and  the 
most  dry  and  dreary  calculations  of  statistical  laws  became 
full  of  life  and  virtue  for  the  merchant  and  the  statesman. 
The  stars  lent  their  silvery  music  to  the  cadence  of  his  tongue, 
and  winds  and  seas  moved  in  accompaniment  to  his  words. 
And  thus  having  mastered  nature,  earth,  and  time,  rising  in 
moral  purity  and  nobleness  to  the  fellowship  of  the  immortals, 


76  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

he  consecrated  every  power  to  rescue  his  country  and  man- 
kind from  the  material  and  the  vile,  and  watched  and  waited 
for  the  moral  victory  till  "  unseen  hands  shifted  for  him  the 
curtains  of  the  dawn." 

And  now  shall  Materialism  mock  that  splendid  history  by 
linking  it  to  the  trilobite  here  and  to  the  death-worm  there  ? 
Kay,  our  hearts  that  discerned  in  him  here  the  offspring  of 
God,  will  yield  him  there  only  to  that  realm  of  spiritual  pow- 
ers, to  that  presence  of  the  divine  and  the  immortal  which  he 
has  described  as  the  consummation  of  the  science  of  the  soul, 
the  true  juosra,  to,  (puCjxa — "  after  nature,  after  time,  after  life, 
after  death."  Let  Materialism  stand  rebuked  before  the  splen- 
did memory  of 


(^Muiirir  (Bhtxtit. 


PROFESSOR  OWEN  ON  SPECIES.  TT 

IsToTE. — Professor  Owen  now  advocates  "Development" 
under  the  name  of  tlie  Derivative  Hypothesis  of  Life  and 
Species^  which  is  substantially  as  follows:  Rejecting  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  direct  or  miraculous  creation  of  species,  he 
recognizes  a  natural  law  or  secondary  cause  as  opei-ative  in 
tlie  production  of  species  in  orderly  succession  and  progres- 
sion— "  of  plants,  or  vertebrates,  or  other  groups  of  organ- 
isms, such  cause  being  the  servant  of  predetermining  intelli- 
gent will."  The  principle  of  ada2:)tation  to  purpose  he  finds 
dominating  that  community  of  organization  Avhich  all  natural- 
ists trace  tln-oughout  the  kingdom  of  Nature.  For  instance, 
he  believes  that  the  relation  of  the  horse  to  the  Palceotheriinn 
as  its  generalized  type  can  be  traced  through  transitional 
forms,  such  as  the  Hipparion  ;  and  "  the  succession  in  time 
accords  with  the  gradational  modifications  by  which  Palceo- 
therium  is  linked  on  to  JEqims.''''  These  modifications  Owen 
ascribes  to  a  law  of  derivation,  originating  in  an  intelligent 
]3nrpose,  and  finds  proof  of  this  in  the  fitness  of  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  horse  and  ass  for  the  needs  of  mankind,  and  the 
coincidence  of  the  origin  of  Ungulates  having  equine  modifi- 
cations of  the  perissodactyle  structure  Avith  the  period  immedi- 
ately preceding,  or  coincident  with,  the  earliest  evidence  of  the 
Human  Race.  "  Of  all  the  quadrupedal  servants  of  Man 
none  have  proved  of  more  value  to  him,  in  peace  or  war, 
than  the  horse ;  none  have  co-operated  with  the  advanced 
races  more  influentially  in  Man's  destined  mastery  over  the 
earth  and  its  lower  denizens.  In  all  the  modifications  of 
the  old  palaeotherium  type  to  this  end,  the  horse  has  acquired 
nobler  proportions  and  higher  faculties,  more  strength,  more 

speed,  with  amenability  to  bit I  believe  the 

horse  to  have  been  predestined  and  prepared  for  Man.  .  .  . 
Assuming  that  Paloiotheriuni  did  ultimately  become  Equus, 
I  gain  no  conception  of  the  operation  of  the  efl^ective  force  by 
personifying  as  '  Xature '  the  aggregate  of  beings  whieli 
compose  the  universe,  or  the  laws  which  govern  these  beings, 
by  giving  to  my  personification  an  attribute  which  can  prop- 
erly be  predicated  only  of  intelligence,  and  by  saying,  '  Na- 
ture has  selected  the  mid-hoof  and  rejected  the  others.' " 


78  MAN :  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

We  are  now  prepared  to  appreciate  the  distinction  between 
Owen's  views  of  the  Origin  of  Species  and  those  of  Darwin, 
with  which  they  have  sometimes  been  confounded. 

1.  Professor  Owen  holds,  with  Darwin,  tliat  actual  races 
are  modifications  of  those  ancient  races  which  are  exemplified 
by  fossil  remains. 

2.  Professor  Owen  holds  with  Darwin,  that  the  changes 
recognizable  in  the  earth's  surface  were  not  sudden  and  vio- 
lent in  their  nature,  and  that  the  extinction  of  species  was 
not  cataclysmal  but  regulated.  In  his  view,  the  discoveries 
of  transitional  forms, — as  in  the  example  of  PalcBOtherium 
and  Equus — have  in  a  good  measure  supplied  tlie  link  be- 
tween the  species  held  to  have  perished  by  cataclysms.  The 
origin  of  species,  therefore,  is  to  be  ascribed  to  a  secondary 
cause,  and  not  to  the  successively-repeated  acts  of  direct 
creation. 

Professor  Owen  protests  wisely  against  invoking  miracu- 
ious  power  to  initiate  every  distinct  species.  Ko  doubt  a  too 
constant  appeal  to  miracle  to  account  for  the  obscure,  tends 
to  cheapen  our  estimate  of  the  supernatural.  The  Bible  often 
uses  natural  means  in  conjunction  with  supernatural  agen- 
cy,— as  the  plagues  of  Egypt  and  the  passage  of  the  Red 
Sea  ;  and  it  never  introduces  the  supernatural  to  account  for 
what  can  be  explained  by  natural  causes.  In  studying  those 
plienomena  of  Nature  whose  causes  are  hidden  from  our 
view,  we  should  imitate  this  wise  discrimination  of  the  Bible; 
since,  as  Owen  says,  "  the  miracle,  by  the  very  multiplication 
of  its  manifestations,  becomes  incredible — inconsistent  with 
any  worthy  conception  of  an  all-seeing,  all-provident  Omnip- 
otence." 

3.  Professor  Owen  agrees,  therefore,  with  Darwin  in  the 
theory  of  development  to  this  extent,  that  he  traces  the  ori- 
gin of  existing  species  to  extinct  species,  through  the  opera- 
tion of  a  secondary  cause. 

4.  But  Darwin  defines  this  secondary  cause  as  "  Natural 
Selection,"  which  is  simply  the  law  of  the  strongest  prevail- 
ing in  "  the  battle  of  life  "  with  external  circumstances.  By 
the  principle  of  Atavism,  indeed,  he  recognizes  in  the  indi- 


OWEN  AND  DARWIN  COMPARED.  79 

viduals  of  a  variety  the  capacity  of  recurring,  under  certain 
conditions,  to  a  more  pronounced  expression  of  some  particu- 
lar feature  or  quality  of  the  original  type.  His  hypothesis  is 
not  atheistic,  nor  materialistic,  for  Darwin  holds  expressly  to 
"  the  view  of  life,  with  its  several  powers,  having  been  origi- 
nally breathed  by  the  Creator  into  a  few  forms  or  into  one." 
But  he  makes  the  change  of  external  circumstances  the  force 
that,  by  calling  out  certain  elements  or  adaptations  in  fa- 

li  vored  individuals  of  a  variety,  educes  by  degrees  the  qualities 
that  eventually  give  character  to  a  new  species.  At  this 
point  Owen  diverges  from  Darwin. 

Professor  Owen  says  indeed,  as  strongly  as  Darwin  himself 
could  state  it,  "  I  have  been  led  to  recognize  species  as  exem- 
plifying the  continuous  operation  of  natural  law,  or  second- 
ary cause  ;  and  that,  not  only  successively,  but  progressive- 
ly ;  from  the  first  embodiment  of  the  Vertebrate  idea  under 
its  old  Ichthyic  vestment  until  it  became  arrayed  in  the  glo- 
rious o:arb  of  the  Human  form."  But  while  thus  conccdino;  a 
law  of  development,  he  refers  this  to  the  guiding  intelligence 
of  the  Creator.  "  Species  owe  as  little  to  the  accidental  con- 
currence of  environing  circumstances  as  Kosmos  dej^ends  on  a 
fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms.  A  purposive  route  of  devel- 
opment and  change,  of  correlation  and  interdependence, 
manifesting  intelligent  "Will,  is  as  determinable  in  the  succes- 
sion of  races  as  in  the  development  and  organization  of  the 
individual.    Generations  do  not  vary  accidentally,  in  any  and 

"  every  direction ;  but  in  preordained,  definite,  and  correlated 
courses."  This  evidence  of  purpose  in  each  change  afiecting 
species  leads  Professor  Owen  to  the  hypothesis  of  Deriva- 
tion— "  that  every  species  changes  in  time,  by  virtue  of  in- 
herent tendencies  thereto."  This  hypothesis  "  sees  among 
the  efl'ects  of  the  innate  tendency  to  change,  irrespective  of 
altered  surrounding  circumstances,  a  manifestation  of  creative 
power  in  the  variety  and  beauty  of  the  results ;  and,  in  the 
ultimate  forthcoming  of  a  being  susceptible  of  appreciating 
such  beauty,  evidence  of  the  preordaining  of  such  relation  of 
power  to  the  appreciation  ;  and  it  also  recognizes  a  purpose 
in  the  defined  and  preordained  course,  due  to  innate  capacity 


80  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

or  power  of  change,  by  which  nomogeuously-created*  proto- 
zoa have  risen  to  the  higher  forms  of  plants  and  animals." 

But  in  ascribing  this  power  of  evolution  and  progression  to 
a  secondary  cause  operating  by  some  hidden  principle  of  der- 
ivation, Professor  Owen  never  loses  sight  of  the  personal  Cre- 
ator. He  illustrates  his  hypothesis  by  magnetic  phenomena, 
"  which  exemplify  one  of  those  subtile,  interchangeable — may 
we  not  say  immaterial  ? — modes  of  force  Vv^hich  endows  the 
metal  with  the  power  of  attracting,  selecting,  and  making  to 
move  a  substance  extraneous  to  itself.  It  is  analogically 
conceivable  that  the  same  Cause  which  has  endowed  His 
world  with  power  convertible  into  magnetic,  electric,  thermo- 
tic,  and  other  forms  or  modes  of  Force,  has  also  added  the 
conditions  of  conversion  into  the  vital  mode." 

These  views  of  Professor  Owen  are  condensed  from  the 
fortieth  chapter  of  his  "Anatomy  of  Vertebrates,"  Avhich 
was  also  published  separately  in  the  Atnerican  Journal  of 
Science  for  January,  1869.  They  suggest  some  important  re- 
flections touching  the  main  topic  of  this  volume. 

1.  It  is  unwise  and  unfair  to  impute  materialistic  or  skepti- 
cal opinions  to  physicists  simply  because  they  adhere  to  phys- 
ical terms  and  methods  in  investigating  and  describing  the 
phenomena  of  Nature,  and  refer  all  those  phenomena  to  ma- 
terial causes.  The  most  rigid  Naturist  may  believe  in  an  in- 
telligent First  Cause  of  the  universe,  and  apart  from  his  nat- 
uralism in  Science  may  believe  in  the  Bible  as  a  revelation 
from  God.  This  both  Darwin  and  Owen  profess  to  do ;  and 
the  latter  says,  expressly,  "My  faith  in  a  future  life  and 
the  resurrection  of  the  dead  rests  on  the  ground  of  their  be- 
ing parts  of  a  divine  revelation."  Both  these  scientists  only 
carry  farther  back  in  the  succession  of  things  the  point  ot 
contact  with  that  divine  Will  which  was  the  original  cause 
of  all. 

Even  Herbert  Spencei*,  who  denies  "  the  ahsolute  com- 
mencement of  organic  life,"  says  of  the  notion  of  "  spontane- 


♦  That  is,  primitive  life-forms  brought  into  existence  by  law,  and  not  by  a  mira* 
cie ;  from  vb^og^  law,  and  yh'o^  root  of  ylyvoiiac,  to  become,  or  come  into  being. 


NO   SPONTANEOUS  GENERATION.  81 

ous  generation,"  as  commonly  understood, — "That  creatures 
having  quite  specific  structures  are  evolved  in  the  course  of  a 
fevv'-  hours,  without  antecedents  calculated  to  determine  their 
specific  forms,  is  to  me  incredible.  Not  only  the  estab- 
lished truths  of  biology,  but  the  established  truths  of  science 
in  general,  negative  the  supposition  that  organisms,  having 
structures  definite  enough  to  identify  them  as  belonging  to 
known  genera  and  species,  can  be  produced  in  the  absence  of 
germs  derived  from  antecedent  organisms  of  the  same  genera 
and  species The  very  conception  of  spontane- 
ity is  wholly  incongruous  with  the  conception  of  evolution. 

No  form  of  evolution,  inorganic  or  organic,  can  be 

spontaneous ;  but  in  every  instance  the  antecedent  forces  must 
be  adequate  in  their  qualities,  kinds,  and  distributions  to 
work  the  observed  efiects The  supposed  spon- 
taneous generation  habitually  occurs  in  menstrua  that  con- 
tain either  organic  matter,  or  matter  originally  derived  from 
organisms  ;  and  such  organic  matter,  proceeding  in  all  known 
cases  from  organisms  of  a  higher  kind,  implies  the  pre-exist- 
ence  of  such  higher  organisms.  By  what  kind  of  logic,  then, 
is  it  inferrible  that  or^-anic  life  was  initiated  after  a  manner 
like  that  in  Avhich  Infusoria  are  said  to  be  now  spontaneous- 
ly generated  ?  Where,  before  life  commenced,  were  the  su- 
perior organisms  from  which  these  lowest  organisms  obtained 
their  organic  matter?"*  On  the  other  hand,  Mr,  Spencer 
denies  the  necessity  of  a  "first  organism,"  and  maintains 
that  "  organic  matter  was  not  produced  all  at  once,  but  was 
reached  tlirough  steps ;"  that  "  every  kind  of  being  is  con- 
ceived as  a  product  of  modifications,  wrought  by  insensible 
gradations  on  a  pre-existing  kind  of  being ;  and  this  holds 
as  fully  of  the  supposed  commencement  of  organic  life  as  of 
all  subsequent  developments  of  organic  life."  But  he  fiiils 
to  account  for  the  infinitesimal  protein^  or  whatever  was  the 
primary  molecule,  and  hence  his  view  of  the  origin  of  organic 
life,  by  an  interminable  process  of  evolution,  still  leaves  a 
place  in  the  unmeasured  past  for  the  operation  of  a  spiritual 


*  Appleton's  Journal,  No.  18,  p.  563,  and  No.  19,  p.  598. 

4* 


82  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Power  "before  life  commenced."     Whence  came  the  mole- 
cules ?  and  Who  or  What  started  the  course  of  Evolution  ? 

The  history  of  Professor  Owen's  opinions  illustrates  the  in- 
stability of  scientific  theories.  Since  the  publication  of  his 
"  PalaBontology "  he  has  openly  shifted  his  ground  upon  the 
doctrine  of  specific  creation  by  the  intervention  of  miraculous 
power.  His  reasons  for  reversing  his  judgment  upon  this  point 
appear  plausible,  but  no  more  so  than  were  his  earlier  argu- 
ments upon  the  other  side.  He  difiers  now  from  Cuvier,  be- 
cause inductive  research  has  brought  him  before  an  array  of 
facts  not  known  to  his  great  teacher.  But  he  differs  equally 
from  Darwin  in  the  hypothesis  by  which  he  accounts  for  these 
same  facts,  and  they  both  differ  widely  from  other  naturalists 
/  in  respect  of  facts  as  well  as  of  hypothesis.  The  treacherous 
ground  for  scientists  is  the  hy2)othesis.  Here,  they  leave  the 
firm  foundation  of  physical  facts  for  the  uncertainties  of  spec- 
ulation, into  which  there  enters  more  or  less  of  the  metaphys- 
ical element ;  and  the  temptation  is  strong  to  substitute  con- 
jecture for  fact,  or  to  piece  out  the  line  of  facts  by  plaus- 
ible conjectures,  or  to  shape  facts  to  the  hypothesis.  As 
Professor  Owen  himself  testifies,  "  a  favorite  theory  may  ren- 
der us  blind  to  facts  which  are  opposed  to  our  preposses- 
sions." 

Hence,  tho^e  who  hold  to  the  Bible  in  its  integrity  as  a  rev- 
elation from  God  need  not  be  disturbed  by  a  scientific  hy- 
pothesis of  to-day  that  seems  to  contradict  the  letter  of  the 
Scriptures.  Twenty  years  may  show  the  hypothesis  to  be  un- 
tenable, or  modify  the  facts  of  which  it  was  constructed.  It 
becomes  phj^sicists  to  be  modest  in  the  assertion  of  theories, 
especially  in  the  sciences  of  physiology,  archaeology,  and  ge- 
ology, where  so  much  remains  to  be  explored  or  revised ;  and 
it  equally  becomes  biblicists  to  be  modest  in  condemning  a 
theory  of  Science  uj^on  the  authority  of  the  Bible,  when 
there  is  yet  so  much  to  be  learned  in  regard  to  the  interpre- 
tation of  the  Scriptures.  Experience  has  thus  far  shown  that 
any  true  result  in  Science  tends  to  harmonize  with  a  true  in- 
terpretation of  the  Bible. 

3.  For  the  right  comprehension  of  the  johysical  universe  it 


THE  SUPERNATURAL  THE  HIGHEST  SCIENCE.       83 

is  necessary  that  we  take  into  view  spiritual  2:)0wers  as  well 
as  physical  phenomena.  The  mere  physicist  can  not  include 
psychology  within  his  proper  province,  yet  there  are  facts  of 
psychology  that  are  as  certain  in  consciousness  as  are  physi- 
cal facts  to  the  senses ;  and  as  in  the  human  organism  the  in- 
teraction of  spirit  and  body  is  so  complex  and  constant  that 
no  just  idea  of  Man  can  be  formed  which  does  not  include 
them  both,  so  in  the  physical  universe  tliere  may  be  invisi- 
ble operations  of  spiritual  powers  whicli  a  higher  Science  of 
the  spiritual  would  enable  us  to  comprehend.  Hence  the  de- 
nial of  the  supernatural  may  be  a  result,  not  of  Science,  but  of 
ignorance.  No  one  knows  enough  of  the  nature  of  spirit, 
or  the  modes  of  its  operation,  to  be  competent  to  affirm  that 
a  Spirit  of  infinite  wisdom  and  power  can  not  so  act  upon  the 
material  universe  as  to  effect  the  purposes  of  an  intelligent 
will,  without  seeming  to  disturb  that  course  of  things  which, 
by  reason  of  its  apparent  uniformity,  we  call  the  Laws  of 
Nature.  At  the  same  time,  the  more  refined  those  laws 
become  in  their  working,  the  nearer  do  they  bring  one  to  the 
realm  of  spiritual  powers. 


LECTURE    Y. 

In  following  the  narrative  given  in  tlie  1st  and  2d  chap- 
ters" of  Genesis,  we  have  seen  that  the  creation  of  Man  w^as 
nshered  in  by  a  distinctive  formula  differing  very  significantly 
from  that  which  describes  the  preceding  periods  of  creation, 
and  denoting  some  more  exalted  purpose  on  the  part  of  the 
Creator.  Among  all  the  forms  of  organized  being  hitherto 
produced,  there  was  no  type  for  this  intended  lord  of  the  cre- 
ation, and  accordingly  he  was  made  directly  in  the  image  and 
likeness  of  God,  intellectually,  and  spiritually,  as  a  moral  being, 
and  in  this  character  of  sonship  was  established  at  once  in 
dominion  over  all  the  other  works  of  God  in  this  lower  world. 
Your  attention  was  called  to  the  fact  that  N'ature — by  wdiich 
we  mean  nothing  independent  of  God,  but  that  course  of 
things  in  continuity  Avhich  is  established  as  the  result  of  the 
creative  powder — was  in  existence  before  Man,  with  its  estab- 
lished elements,  principles,  forces,  and  laws,  as  we  now  know 
them  (a  fact  which  is  very  clear  upon  the  face  of  the  geologi- 
cal records),  and  also  that  there  were  immense  asons  in  the 
process  of  this  earth's  formation  during  which  Man  could  not 
possibly  have  existed  in  its  atmospheric  and  other  conditions. 
We  have  further  seen  that  there  was  nothing  in  those  jore- 
existing  forces  and  elements  of  Nature  capable  of  producing 
Man ;  that  while  there  has  been  a  law  of  advance  in  type- 
forms  through  the  whole  course  of  creation,  there  has  been 
also  a  lifting  up  by  a  power  coming  in  from  above  upon 
antecedent  conditions,  which  conditions,  though  necessary  to 


TRUE  SCIENCE  BELONGS  TO  THEOLOGY.  85 

the  next  step,  could  not  of  themselves  create  or  originate  that 
step.  We  have  seen,  also,  that  the  notion  of  a  develoi:)ment  of 
the  human  species  from  any  preceding  form  of  organization 
has  nothing  to  substantiate  it  in  anything  yet  discovered,  and 
is  unphilosophical  in  the  assumption  with  which  it  starts.  We 
have  seen,  moreover,  that  Man  exists  not  in  and  of  Xature,  as 
a  mere  part  of  it,  but  over  Nature,  as  ruling  it  and  subjecting 
it  to  his  uses.  AYe  should  properly  have  closed  the  consider- 
ation of  the  status  of  Man  at  that  point,  had  it  not  been  that 
the  question  of  his  Antiquity,  though  by  no  means  settled  upon 
valid  grounds  of  Science,  has  assumed  an  importance  that 
demands  the  recoijjnition  of  all  fair-minded  theoloGfians. 

There  is  a  great  deal  of  superficial  talk  nowadays  concern- 
ing the  alleged  discoveries  and  determinations  of  Science  upon 
this  question,  as  being  both  in  fact  and  in  tone  hostile  to  the 
Scriptures.  Some  scientists,  indeed,  parade  their  hostility  to 
the  Bible,  and  some  theologians  are  as  forward  in  their  denun- 
ciations of  Science ;  but  there  is  no  just  ground  for  such  op- 
position upon  either  side. 

Those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  hear  discourses  from 
this  |3ulpit,  will  bear  witness  that  there  is  no  philosophical 
lecture-room  in  the  land  where  true  Science  is  more  uniformly 
accredited  and  held  in  honor  than  here;  that  no  fact  of  Science 
is  ever  questioned,  no  established  principle  of  Science  is  ever 
gainsaid,  but  all  that  Science  has  really  proved  is  gratefidly 
accepted  as  part  of  God's  teachings  to  Mankind,  in  the  con- 
viction that  there  never  has  been  and  never  can  be  any  real 
collision  between  facts  of  Science  fairly  made  out  and  the 
Bible  fairly  interpreted.  In  this  spirit  we  propose  to  take  uj) 
the  question  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man,  to  bring  out  fliirly  all 
the  facts  that  bear  upon  it,  so  far  as  they  are  known,  and  to 
lay  these  side  by  side  with  the  record  of  the  Word  of  God. 

How  long  has  Man  hee)i  upon  the,  globe  f    I  do  not  know. 


86  MAN:  IN   GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Does  anybody  know  ?  Are  we  able  to  trace  back  the  human 
race  to  its  beginning,  and  to  measure  the  term  of  its  duration? 
ISTot  yet,  I  think.  The  data  upon  this  subject  are  meagre  and 
uncertain,  and  the  question,  wliich  ought  to  be  simply  one  of 
fact,  resolves  itself  pretty  much  into  one  of  speculative  or 
problematical  inquiry.  Hence,  when  we  study  it  purely  as 
a  question  in  Xatural  History,  we  should  keep  distinctly  in 
our  minds  the  only  fact  that  as  yet  is  a  fact  about  it,  viz., 
that  it  is  extremely  problematical.  Setting  aside  for  the 
present  this  narrative  in  Genesis,  Avhat  data  have  we  by 
which  to  determine  the  continuance  of  Man  upon  the  globe  ? 
1.  There  are  monimiental  remains  scattered  here  and 
there  upon  the  surface  of  the  globe  which  are  supposed  to 
belong  to  a  remote  antiquity.  But  these  fall  within  measurable 
periods  of  time.  There  may  be  here  and  there  a  mooted 
question  as  to  the  age  of  some  particular  monuments  of  an- 
tiquity ;  but  none  of  these  make  very  extravagant  demands 
upon  our  fiith.  Take,  for  instance,  the  probable  age  of  the 
pyramids  of  Egypt.  I  say  2^'i^obable,  since  it  is  not  yet  pos- 
sible from  the  sources  at  command  to  fix  precisely  the  date 
of  their  erection  in  the  chronology  of  the  world,  although 
their  place  in  the  dynasties  of  Egypt  is  more  nearly  ascer- 
tained. The  great  pyramids,  by  the  common  consent  of 
Egyptologers,  are  assigned  to  the  Fourth  dynasty  of  kings  of 
the  Old  Empire,  as  given  by  Manetho ;  and  the  commeKce- 
ment  of  this  dynasty  has  been  placed  by  Lepsius,  Bunsen, 
Brugsch,  and  others,  at  from  three  thousand  to  three  thousand 
six  hundred  years  before  Christ.  Bunsen,  however,  in  his 
latest  recension  of  Egyptian  chronology,  revised  Manetho's 
lists  by  those  of  Eratosthenes  of  Alexandria,  and  thus,  as  be 
expresses  it,  "  got  rid  legitimately  of  a  considerable  number 
of  useless  centuries."  He  had  before  said,  "  In  no  part  of 
Asia  doer,  chronological   national  history  go  back  beyoiK^ 


DATE   OF  THE  PYRA3IIDS.  87 

4000  B.C.,  tlioiigli  we  see  cveryAvhere  traces  of  a  preceding 
epoch  of  tribes  and  municipal  cities ;"  and  now  in  Egypt  he 
reduces  the  epoch  of  Menes  to  3059  n.c,  and  the  date  of  the 
three  gretit  pyramids  from  2G45  B.C.  to  2559  B.C.,*  an  abate- 
ment of  six  hundred  years  from  hi.s  previous  estimate.  Mr. 
C.  Piazzi  Smith,  wlio  looks  upon  tlie  Great  Pyramid  as  a 
monument  of  mathematical  and  astronomical  science,  pro- 
fesses to  have  determined  from  astronomical  data  the  erection 
of  the  Great  Pyramid  as  in  the  year  2170  B.C. ;  much  of  liis 
reasoning,  however,  is  theoretical.  But  if  we  take  the  ex- 
tremest  view  of  responsible  authorities  in  Egyptology,  these 
do  not  attempt  to  place  the  pyramids  farther  back  than  four 
thousand  years  before  Christ;  and  tliis,  the  oldest  conjectural 
period,  is  ^mv'^^  conjectural  on  the  part  of  those  who  advocate 
the  longest  chronology  for  the  Egyptian  empire.  Even 
should  we  concede  such  antiquity  to  these  monuments,  this  is 
still  7neasurahle,  for  tliese  are  j^eriods  of  time  that  Ave  can 
comprehend.  We  could  adjust  our  chronology  to  such  dates, 
without  taxing  credulity  overmuch  in  respect  to  the  main 
question  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man. 

2.  Leaving,  then,  these  monuments  upon  an  api^reciable 
historic  basis,  we  pass  in  the  next  place  to  the  traditions  of  a 
remote  origin,  which  are  found  among  various  nations.  Witli 
the  perhaps  solitary  exception  of  the  Hebrews,  these  traditions 
reach  back  to  a  fir  antiquity.  But  we  detect  in  them  all  a 
fixbulous  element.  The  moment  one  passes  over  the  sharp 
line  of  definite  history,  one  is  in  a  dim  and  shadovry  land, 
where  there  is  nothing  authentic  to  rest  upon  or  work  with. 
Two  views  may  be  taken  of  these  traditions.  On  the  one 
side  it  is  claimed,  with  a  show  of  reason,  that  there  must  have 
been  some  basis  at  least  for  the  oriujin  of  national  traditions 

*  "Efypt'3  Place,"  vol.  v.,  p.  C2. 


88  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

of  a  vague  antiquity — some  prolouged  indeiinite  period  before 
we  reach  the  positive  bcgiiiuings  of  history.  But,  on  tlie 
other  hand,  it  may  be  asserted  witli  equal  significance,  that 
there  is  a  tendency  in  the  human  mind  universally  to  invent 
and  exaggerate  matters  pertaining  to  the  remote  past.  Even 
within  a  period  that  barely  transcends  the  memory  of  tlie 
living,  how  many  stories  we  have  accumulated  already  about 
Washington,  magnifying  his  heroic  character  and  life,  his  re- 
markable preservation  from  danger,  and  so  on — some  of 
which  probably  have  not  a  shadow  of  foundation  in  fact. 
How  many  stories  we  have  about  the  Pilgrim  Fathers,  and 
the  early  history  of  New  England,  which  probably  have  no 
warrant  whatever  in  fact,  and  yet  these  go  back  only  two 
centuries.  When  we  go  back  ten  centuries,  how  much  of 
tradition  must  needs  be  mythical;  and  when  it  comes  to 
periods  of  thousands  of  years,  the  whole  thing  is  so  indeter- 
minate that  no  philosophical  mind  can  accept  it.  Hence, 
judicious  investigators  of  Roman  and  Grecian  history — rNie- 
buhr,  Mommsen,  Grote — have  sifted  out  and  thrown  aside  as 
worthless  a  great  mass  of  early  tradition.  These  two  data, 
Monuments  and  Traditions,  are  of  comparatively  little  help 
in  determining  with  accuracy  the  period  of  Man's  beginning, 
the  term  of  his  continuance  upon  this  globe. 

3.  We  pass,  then,  in  the  third  place,  to  certain  remains  of 
human  iDork'inanship  which  are  found  in  such  relations  to  ex- 
tinct races  of  animals,  or  in  such  geological  conditions  as 
mark  a  high  antiquity.  Let  me  enumerate  a  few  of  these. 
In  1853-4,  during  a  remarkably  dry  winter  in  Switzerland,  the 
lakes  and  rivers  fell  far  below  their  usual  level,  and  the  inhab- 
itants of  Meilen,  on  the  Lake  of  Zurich,  improved  the  oppor- 
tunity in  dredging  and  building  walls,  and  in  so  doing  came 
upon  the  remains  of  piles  and  various  traces  of  human  habita- 
tions.    Explorations  were  made  in  the  lakes  generally,  and 


PILE-HABITATIONS  OF  THE  SWISS  LAKES.  89 

in  Zurich,  Constance,  Geneva,  Xeiifchatel,  Bienne,  Morat, 
Sempach,  and  in  many  of  the  smaller  lakes,  Ink\Yyl,  Pfeffikon, 
Moosseedorf,  Luissel,  etc.,  were  found  remains  of  pile-habita' 
tions,  numberintr  in  the  whole  more  than  two  hundred  distinct 
settlements.  These  were  remains  of  piles  and  of  platforms 
upon  which  houses  had  been  built,  remains  of  weapons  and 
of  domestic  utensils,  the  bones  of  animals,  and  now  and  then 
bones  of  men.  But  these  diversified  remains  were  so  con- 
fusedly mingled  that  it  was  impossible  to  assign  them  all  to 
anyone  era,  or  in  some  cases  to  fix  definitely  upon  any  period 
for  the  construction  of  the  dwellings.  Some  of  them  clearly 
belonged  to  Roman  times  ;  others  to  a  period  when  iron  had 
come  into  general  use ;  while  others  exhibited  only  traces  of 
bronze  or  of  stone;  but  as  yet,  in  these  lake  settlements,  noth- 
ing has  been  -found  that  would  necessarily  carry  us  back  to 
a  remarkable  antiquity.  Indeed,  the  remains  of  domestic 
animals  and  of  the  cereals  found  in  these  lake  settlements 
bring  them  within  the  pale  of  a  comparative  civilization. 
Herodotus  describes  such  lake-dwellers.  A  principal  point  of 
interest  and  difiiculty  in  connection  with  these  lake  habita- 
tions is  the  occurrence  of  peat,  which  in  some  instances  has 
been  found  deposited  to  a  considerable  depth  over  the  re- 
mains of  human  settlements.  It  is  assumed  by  some  that  the 
rate  of  formation  of  peat  is  so  slow  as  to  require  a  very  long 
period  for  the  growth  of  the  peat-bog  at  Chamblon,  on  the 
Lake  of  Neufchatel,  or  the  morass  at  Pont  de  Thiele,  in  the 
Lake  of  Bienne.  That,  however,  is  a  question  in  dispute  among 
scientific  men ;  and  we  must  wait  until  there  is  some  satisfac- 
tory evidence  as  to  the  length  of  time  required  for  such  peat 
deposits  as  those  just  mentioned,  before  we  attempt  to  pro- 
nounce any  definite  opinion.  Time  science  is  always  modest, 
— waits  until  it  knows.  The  remark  of  Sir  Charles  Lyell  is 
here  in  point :  "  The  depth  of  overlying  peat  affords  no  safe 


90  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

criterion  for  calculating  the  age  of  the  cabin  or  village,  for 
both  in  England  and  Ireland,  within  historical  times,  bogs 
have  burst  and  sent  forth  great  volumes  of  black  mud,  which 
has  been  known  to  creep  over  tlie  country  at  a  slow  pace, 
flowing  somewhat  at  the  rate  of  ordinary  lava-currents,  and 
sometimes  overwhelming  woods  dnd  cottages,  and  leaving  a 
deposit  upon  them  of  bog-earth  fifteen  feet  thick."  *  To  the 
same  effect  is  the  admission  of  Carl  Vogt,  that  "we  neither 
know  generally  within  what  time  a  str^itum  of  peat  one  foot 
thick  may  grow,  nor  do  we  possess  any  scientific  data  to  calcu- 
late the  quantity  of  growth  within  a  given  time  of  any  individ- 
ual peat-moor ;  that  the  growth  must  differ  in  various  moors  ; 
that  even  in  a  given  locality  it  must  have  differed  during  cer- 
tain periods,  is  easily  imaginable."  f 

In  the  investigation  of  a  problem  so  obscure  as  this  of  the 
Antiquity  of  Man,  where  the  temptation  is  strong  to  make 
hasty  generalizations  and  unfounded  assertions,  it  is  well  to 
keep  in  mind  the  famous  maxim  of  Confucius,  that  "  Know- 
ledge consists  in  knowing  ^\\dit  we  know,  and  also  in  knowing 
what  we  do  not  know  ; "  and  the  knowledge  of  our  ignorance, 
the  ability  to  make  a  sharp  distinction  between  the  known 
and  tlie  vinknown,  will  save  us  from  many  false  conclusions. 

4.  As  the  argument  for  the  Antiquity  of  Man  is  cumulative, 
and  I  desire  to  give  to  each  item  its  proportionate  weight,  I 
pass  from  the  lake-dwellings  to  the  evidence  from  mounds  of 
various  descriptions  in  different  parts  of  the  globe.  Those  on 
the  coasts  of  Denmark,  known  as  "  Kitchen-Middens,"  are 
probably  made  up  of  the  refuse  deposited  from  kitchens  by  the 
aboriginal  hunters  and  fishers  of  those  islands.  These  mounds 
contain  shells,  bones,  and  utensils.     The  bones  are  exclusively 


*  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  p.  32. 

tArt.  in  '"'  Archiv.  fur  Anthropologies^  translated  in  Anthropological  Jieiiew,  No. 
17,  p.  209. 


MOUNDS  AND  PEAT  IN  GER^IANY.  91 

those  of  animals  that  have  inhabited  Europe  within  historic 
times ;  the  shells  are  of  living  species,  but  no  longer  found  in 
the  waters  adjacent  to  the  mounds ;  the  implements  are  of 
stone.  Accordingly  there  is  nothing  in  these  findings  that 
points  to  a  very  high  antiquity. 

The  pretentious  claim  of  a  vast  antiquity  for  corresponding 
mounds  ia  Scotland,  put  forth  by  Mr.  Laing  in  his  "  Pre- 
Historic  Remains  of  Caithness,"  has  been  exposed  by  J.  Cleg- 
horn,  Esq.,  a  scientific  antiquary,  who  shows  conclusively, 
upon  geological  and  archaeological  grounds,  that  remains 
which  Mr.  Laing  ascribed  to  unknown  races  in  pre-historic 
times,  can  not  date  back  more  than  three  or  four  hundred 
years.*  The  mounds  are  thus  far  a  very  indeterminate  ele- 
ment in  any  calculation  of  the  Antiquity  of  3Ian. 

Traces  of  human  works  and  habitations  have  also  been 
found  in  Denmark,  in  peat-bogs  in  connection  with  remains  of 
pine  and  oak  forests,  which  have  been  long  supplanted  by  for- 
ests of  beech,  which  covered  the  Danish  isles  as  far  back  as  the 
time  of  the  Romans.  Much  time  must  be  allowed  for  such  a 
succession  of  forests,  and  for  so  thick  a  deposit  of  peat.  But 
here,  as  before,  all  estimates  are  as  yet  conjectural,  and  no 
data  yet  supplied  from  these  sources  demand  the  immense 
periods  that  some  assign  to  Man's  existence  upon  the  globe. 
"  Differences  in  the  humidity  of  the  climate,  or  in  the  intens- 
ity and  duration  of  summer's  heat  and  winter's  cold,  as  well 
as  diversity  in  the  species  of  plants  which  most  abound,  would 
cause  the  peat  to  grow  more  or  less  rapidly,  not  only  when 
we  compare  two  distinct  countries  in  Europe,  but  the  same 
country  at  two  successive  periods."  f 


*  See  this  whole  question  discussed  in  the  Ant?iropological  lievuw.  and  Jounial 
of  the  Anthropological  Society,  No.  14,  p.  cxxxix.  See  also  the  masterly  work  of 
Nilsson,  '•'■  Les  Habitants  jmmitifs  de  la  Scandiuavie,"  one  of  the  best  authorities  on 
the  subject. 

tSir  Charles  Lycll,  "Antiquity  of  Man,"  p.  111. 


92  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

A  more  important  point,  and  one  that  throws  us  farther 
back  in  the  uncertain  period  of  Man's  origin,  is  the  remains 
found  171  the  caves  of  rivers — as  for  instance  in  Belgium,  where 
they  have  been  minutely  explored — or  in  the  sides  of  rocks, 
where  rivers  once  had  their  bed.  Here  are  implements  evi. 
dently  fashioned  by  the  hands  of  men,  and  along  with  them 
the  bones  of  extinct  species  of  animals,  such  as  the  cave-bear 
hyena,  elephant,  and  rhinoceros.  Similar  remains  have  been 
found  in  France,  especially  in  the  valleys  of  the  Seine  and  the 
Somme,  in  the  deposits  known  as  the  river-drift,  consisting  of 
strata  of  sandy  marl,  gravel,  etc.  Where  such  layers  are 
found  at  a  great  elevation  above  the  present  level  of  the 
stream,  in  addition  to  the  computed  age  of  the  drift,  time 
must  be  allowed  for  theworkino;  down  of  so  enormous  a  mass 
as  the  stream  has  bored  through  in  reaching  its  present  bed. 
How  much  time  can  not  be  determined,  for  it  is  yet  an  un- 
settled question  in  Geology,  whether  certain  agencies  con- 
cerned in  such  changes  did  not  work  more  rapidly  in  the 
earlier  formative  periods  of  our  globe  than  they  are  seen  or 
computed  to  work  at  present,  or  whether  convulsions  may 
not  sometimes  have  precipitated  what  is  assumed  to  have 
been  the  result  of  gradual  changes.  Moreover,  "  alluvial 
formations  still  take  place  in  which  the  j^roducts  of  former  and 
later  periods  are  commingled.  Thus  a  river  running  through 
sand-banks  belonging  to  different  periods  of  formation  may 
mingle  portions  of  these  sand-banks  in  a  new  alluvial  forma- 
tion  Deposits  may  take  place  which,  coming  from 

heights,  may  present  features  of  being  older  than  they  actu- 
ally are.  It  is  exceedingly  difficult  to  parallelize  the  various 
deposits  characterizing  the  diluvium,  and  for  the  present,  at 
least,  to  determine  the  chronoloi^ical  succession  in  which  cer- 
tain  formations  of  different  countries  stand  to  each  other,  es- 
pecially as  the  stratification  which  guides  us  in  elder  beds  is 


CAUTION  IN  FRAMING  OR  RECEIVING  THEORIES.     93 

in  the  diluvium  very  confused,  and  offers  no  certain  basis  for 
tenable  inferences P  *  But  there  is  no  room  to  question  the 
general  result  of  these  researches  among  the  river-caves  and 
the  diluvial  drift ;  the  findings  are  too  numerous  and  well 
attested,  and  the  archaeological  and  geological  conditions  too 
well  ascertained,  to  admit  a  doubt  that  Man  existed  in  Europe 
contemporaneously  with  the  cave-bear,  and  at  least  npon  the 
margin  of  the  glacial  age.  What,  then,  shall  we  make  of  these 
facts  in  view  of  the  Biblical  account  of  the  oricfin  of  Man  ? 

Although  the  question  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man  is  by  no 
means  a  novel  one,  this  phase  of  it  is  so  new  that  as  yet  no 
one  is  in  a  position  to  pronounce  upon  it  with  final  authority. 
There  are  not  data  enough  for  absolute  conclusions.  Two 
tendencies,  however,  should  be  guarded  against :  first,  the 
speculative  tendency  in  the  minds  of  some  who  are  exclu- 
sively devoted  to  physical  science,  to  assume  a  great  age  for 
every  newly  discovered  fact  on  the  face  of  the  globe.  This 
tendency  to  theorize  is  not  common  with  scientific  men  ;  yet 
there  are  men  of  true  science  who  have  the  speculative 
tendency  very  strongly  developed.  In  reading  the  writings 
of  such  physicists,  one  should  be  on  his  guard  against  this 
continually,  and  watch  them  closely  where,  perhaps  uncon- 
sciously to  themselves,  they  drop  out  of  the  line  of  facts  into 
the  line  of  theory  and  speculation.  Especially  should  one 
receive  with  caution  such  fixcts  as  first  appear  in  the  news- 
papers !  Many  of  you  will  remember  the  sensation  caused,  a 
few  years  ago,  by  the  announcement  that  there  had  been 
brought  up  from  a  depth  of  some  ninety  feet  or  more  under 
the  alluvial  deposits  of  the  Nile  a  piece  of  pottery  indicating 
human  workmanship.  And  then  there  were  profound 
calculations  to  show  how  many  thousands  of  years  old  this 

♦Carl  Vogt,  Anthropological  Review,  No.  17,  p.  208. 


94:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

deposit  was — measuring  by  the  rate  of  formation  in  the  Nile 
delta — and  finally  this  was  placed  at  a  figure  so  enormous 
that  one  was  staggered  at  the  attempt  to  conceive  of  Man  as 
having  existed  for  billions  of  years.  This  "  discovery  "  went 
through  the  newspapers,  "  and  where  is  Moses  ?  where  is 
Genesis  ?  "  was  the  cry ;  until  a  more  careful  investigation 
proved  to  the  satisfaction  of  experienced  archaeologists  that 
the  bit  of  pottery  was  of  Moman  origin,  which  ended  that 
matter.  Some  will  remember  the  great  hurrah  that  went  up 
from  the  camp  of  infidelity  when  the  zodiac  on  the  temple 
of  Denderah  was  first  discovered,  and  what  an  immense 
stretch  of  time  was  assigned  to  the  structure  of  that  edifice 
as  marked  by  this  astronomical  ornament !  But  how  did  the 
reading  of  the  hieroglyphics  shame  the  rashness  of  such 
antiquaries !  Hence,  it  is  well  to  guard  against  the  purely 
speculative  habit  of  ascribing  an  immense  age  to  every  new 
discovery  in  archaeology. 

At  the  same  time,  I  would  earnestly  exhort  theologians, 
and  all  Christians,  to  guard  against  the  tendency  on  the  other 
side — to  raise  the  cry  of  infidelity  or  skejoticism  against  men 
of  Science  for  every  theory  that  they  propound  which  is  not 
in  obvious  harmony  with  the  Bible.  That  is  not  the  way  to 
deal  with  these  questions  on  either  side.  I  make  no  preten- 
sion to  being  a  man  of  Science;  but  as  an  interpreter  of  the 
Bible,  I  am  as  much  beholden  to  any  fact  of  Science  as  the 
most  accomplished  scientist.  We  are  not  warranted  in 
pitting  Science  and  the  Scriptures  one  against  the  other.  It 
is  not  philosophical  in  the  man  of  Science  to  raise  a  hue  and 
cry  against  the  Bible  as  soon  as  he  discovers  something  new  ; 
but,  on  the  other  hand,  let  the  theologian  be  careful  how  he 
raises  the  cry  of  infidelity.  Now,  there  are  certain  broad 
principles  that  we  can  lay  down  which  may  govern  us  in  the 
further  investigation  of  the  question  of  Man's  antiquity. 


DID  THE  HUMAN  RxVCE  BEGIN ^MN  BARBARISM?     95 

1.  Whatever  may  prove  to  be  the  fact  in  regai-d  to  the 
Antiquity  of  Man,  it  is  a  groundless  assumption  that  Man 
began  his  existence  at  a  low  stage  of  barbarism. 

Some  have  projected  a  theory  of  the  beginning  and  growth 
of  human  society  to  the  following  effect : — that  Man  began 
at  an  indefinitely  remote  period,  and  at  the  lowest  conceiv- 
able stage,  using  stone  only  for  his  implements; — this  was 
the  "  stone  age ;"  by  and  by  he  advanced  a  little,  and  came 
to  the  discovery  and  use  of  bronze — hence  the  "  bronze  age;" 
after  that  came  the  use  of  iron,  and  so  the  "  iron  age ;"  and 
these  successive  gradations  are  supposed  to  mark  the  origin 
and  progress  of  the  race.  But  it  is  sheer  assum^^tion  that 
this  indicates  the  universal  history  of  Mankind. 

Stone  implements  have  been  found  here  and  there  in  the 
lakes,  caves,  mounds,  and  river-drift  of  Europe.  What  then  ? 
The  men  who  made  those  implements  may  have  possessed 
intelligence  and  a  moral  development  far  above  what  these 
manifestations  would  indicate,  while  as  yet  they  had  only  an 
imperfect  knowledge  of  the  arts.  The  Hebrew  patriarchs, 
of  a  much  later  time,  Avere  not  advanced  in  the  industrial 
arts  in  proportion  to  their  moral  development.  Moreover, 
great  ingenuity  and  resource  are  shown  by  many  of  the 
rudest  tribes  in  their  weapons,  and  the  sense  of  beauty  is 
evinced  by  them  in  the  choice  and  invention  of  ornamental 
forms.  It  is  a  hasty  conclusion  to  assume  that  Mankind 
everywhere  began  their  existence  at  a  very  low  stage  of 
barbarism,  simply  because  we  have  found  in  certain  localities 
only  an  inferior  kind  of  implements  and  Aveapons. 

According  to  Mr.  Bickmore,  in  the  Kl  group  of  the  East  . 
Indian  Archipelago,   "  the  natives  are  very  industrious  and 
famous  as  boat-builders.      They  need  no  iron  to  complete 
boats  of  considerable  size,  which  they  sell  to  inhabitants  of 
all  that  part  of  the  archipelago."     Here  aie  mechanics  and 


96  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

traders  living  without  iron  in  tlie  very  millennium  of  the 
"  iron  age  "  of  the  world. 

2.  It  is  also  a  groundless  assumption  that  if  the  "  stone 
age,"  so  called,  existed,  it  was  universal  at  any  one  time 
upon  the  habitable  globe.  This  "  stone  age ''  exists  to-day 
among  certain  savage  tribes,  and  is  contemporary  with  the 
steam  engine,  the  locomotive,  the  magnetic  telegraph,  that 
are  types  and  indications  of  man's  highest  civilization  in 
material  thinsrs. 

Look  at  the  condition  of  that  Britain,  from  whose  loins  our 
a;icestors  sprang,  at  the  time  when  Constantino]ii»  was  the 
Beat  of  a  luxurious  court.  "Her  shores  were,  to  the  polished 
race  which  dwelt  by  the  Bosporus,  objects  of  a  mysterious 
horror,  such  as  that  Avith  which  the  lonians  of  the  age  of 
Homer  had  regarded  the  Straits  of  Scylla  and  the  city  of 
the  Lsestrygonian  cannibals."  *  Or  go  back  a  little  earlier,  to 
the  period  when  the  Komans  first  invaded  Britain ;  history 
tells  us  that  the  conquerors  even  despaired  of  teaching  such 
barbarians  how  to  build  a  stone  wall.  There  was  the 
luxurious  civilization  of  Italy  and  the  East,  side  by  side 
with  this  stone  age  in  Western  Europe.  Consider  how  small 
a  portion  of  the  globe  has  yet  been  examined  for  the  relics  of 
antiquity.  The  vast  fields  of  Central  Asia  are  probably  rich 
in  deposits  of  the  earlier  periods  of  humanity;  and  these 
have  been  but  little  explored. 

Carl  Vogt  admits  that  the  Stone,  Bronze,  and  Iron  periods 
may  overlap  each  other.  "  The  Homeric  heroes,  Avho  knew 
bronze  and  iron,  threw  stones  at  each  other,  and  the  sling 
was,  in  not  very  remote  times,  a  legitimate  war  weapon. 
Certain  as  it  is  that  stone,  bronze,  and  iron  periods  only  form 
relative  sections  continued  into  one  another,  it  can  not  be 

♦  Macaulay,  "  History  of  England,"  chap.  1. 


NO  UNIVERSAL  STONE  AGE.  97 

assumed  that  similar  civilization  epochs  were  simultaneously 
developed  in  diiferent  parts  of  the  globe.  In  other  words, 
even  in  the  limited  area  of  Europe,  there  may,  on  the  coasts 
and  on  rivers,  peoples  have  existed,  further  advanced  in 
civilization,  who  laiew  of  and  how  to  use  metals ;  while  in 
the  interior  of  the  country  tribes  dwelt,  who  for  centuries, 
perhaps,  had  no  idea  of  metals,  not  unlike  the  savages  of 
islands  who  used  stone  weapons  until  Europe  supplied  them 
with  iron,  lead,  and  powder As  in  our  present  civili- 
zation epoch  there  are  many  regions  where  Man  requires  his 
whole  time  for  the  acquirement  of  the  necessities  of  existence, 
so  must  it  in  greater  degree  have  been  in  primitive  times ; 
and  thus  it  might  have  come  to  pass,  that  while  in  one 
district  civilization  had  sufficiently  progressed  for  the  manu- 
facture of  more  perfect  implements,  those  of  adjoining 
districts  were  still  in  a  rudimentary  condition."*  It  is  well  to 
•be  modest  in  asserting  the  universality  of  a  stone  age, 
contemporary  all  over  the  globe. 

3.  It  is  a  groundless  assumption  that  the  stone  age  was  the 
first  type  of  human  existence  anywhere.  It  may  have 
marked  deterioration.  What  is  there,  especially  until  Cen- 
tral Asia  shall  have  been  explored,  to  disprove  the  represent- 
ation made  by  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  that  man  began 
his  existence  fitted  by  his  Creator  for  the  work  of  subjuga- 
ting Nature,  and  began  at  once  to  do  this  ?  But  with  the 
progress  of  human  society,  with  the  increase  of  population, 
what  is  the  tendency  ?  Always  to  crowd  the  weaker  off  to 
the  farthest  outposts.  And  what  is  the  consequence  of  that  ? 
Deterioration  always,  unless  the  stronger  find  some  motive,  as 
for  instance  in  the  discovery  of  gold  or  in  fat  fields  inviting 
them  to  go  after  the  weaker,  and  carry  with  them   their 


•  ArUhrqpo^oglCal  I^cvi^ic,  No.  17,  pp.  205,  214. 

5 


98  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

civilization.  The  lost  arts  are  an  indication  of  what  may 
often  have  repeated  itself  in  human  history.  "  Flint  imple- 
ments  are  a  very  uncertain  indication  of  civilization  even 
among  the  tribes  who  used  them ;  and  are  no  index  at  all  of 
the  state  of  civilization  among  other  tribes  who  lived  at  the 
F-ame  time  in  other  portions  of  the  globe."  * 

4.  It  is  a  theoretical  assumption — not  a  demonstrated  fact — 
that  the  present  rate  of  geological  changes,  as  for  instance 
in  the  formation  of  deltas  or  the  uplifting  and  depression  of 
continents,  is  the  proper  guage  for  measuring  such  changes 
in  the  past.  Some  very  eminent  geologists  are  of  opinion 
that  "  the  causes  of  geological  change  were  once  more  intense 
and  rapid  in  their  action  than  they  are  now."  One  such 
authority,  writing  in  the  Anthropological  JReview^  makes 
these  concessions :  "  It  may  almost  be  asserted  that  every 
scientific  opinion  is  speculative.  It  may  be  safely  said  that 
there  is  no  opinion  current  among  scientific  men, — not 
even  of  those  opinions  whose  claim  to  the  title  '  principle ' 
appears  most  unquestionable, — that  is  not  essentially  2^ovi- 
sio7ial,  liable  to  modification  or  even  revolution  under  the 
pressure  of  increased  knowledge ; "  and  applying  this  to 
theories  of  the  origin  of  Man,  he  speaks  of  the  "  present  in- 
complete state  of  our  knowledge,  and  the  necessity  of  waiting 
for  a  larger  and  clearer  mass  of  testimony  before  venturing 
to  try  conclusions  upon  a  subject  so  obscure."  f  The  several 
considerations  here  enumerated  show  how  premature  and 
unauthoritative  would  be  a  judgment  just  now  in  favor  of  the 
extreme  antiquity  of  Man  upon  the  globe. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  facts  that  seem  to  call  for 
an  extension  of  time  considerably  beyond  the  computed  chro- 
nology of  the  Bible,  in  order  to  admit  of  all  that  lias  been 

*  Duke  of  Argyll,  "  Primeval  Man."  t  Anthropological  Review,  No.  24,  p.  19. 


USHER'S  CHRONOLOGY  TOO  SHORT.  99 

effected  by  Man  and  in  Man  since  his  first  appearance  on  the 
earth. 

1.  The  oldest  monuments  of  Egypt  can  hardly  be  brought 
•within  the  date  of  the  flood  of  Noah  according  to  the  received 
Hebrew  chronology.  The  date  assigned  to  the  three  great 
pyramids  by  most  Egyptologists  is  older  than  the  flood  as 
this  is  reckoned  in  the  margin  of  our  Bibles  ;  and  the  lowest 
date  to  which  Prof  Piazzi  Smith  and  other  advocates  of  the 
shorter  chronology  would  reduce  them  by  astronomical  modes 
of  computation,  is  still  far  too  old  to  be  fairly  accommodated 
to  the  Hebrew  date  of  the  flood ;  for  the  building  of  those 
stupendous  monuments  required  a  knowledge  of  the  mechanic 
arts  that  perplexes  us  even  in  this  day  of  mechanical  inven- 
tions, and  a  consolidated  state  of  society  imder  a  centralized 
power  that  only  time  could  have  established.  Such  a  condi- 
tion of  things  is  not  reached  in  a  day.  I  have  shown,  indeed, 
how  groundless  is  the  assumption  that  Man  began  his  exist- 
ence at  the  low  stage  of  barbarism  of  which  flint  implements 
are  taken  to  be  the  index ;  and  that  there  is  no  warrant  of 
fact  or  of  philosophy  for  the  thousands  of  years  laid  down  by 
Bunsen  as  necessary  for  the  development  of  a  condition  of 
civilization  equal  to  the  building  of  the  pyramids.  On  the 
contrary,  the  theory  is  quite  as  plausible  that  Man  began  his 
existence  under  mental  and  material  conditions  that  favored 
the  rapid  construction  of  a  civihzed  society,  and  that  the 
remains  of  a  primitive  barbarism  are  also  tokens  of  deteriora- 
tion from  the  original  t}^e  of  Humanity.  It  is  plain  from  the 
Hebrew  narrative  that,  at  the  time  of  the  flood,  the  mechanic 
arts  were  in  a  good  state  of  forwardness.  As  far  back  as  the 
days  of  Lamech  we  read  of  artificers  in  brass  and  iron,  the 
invention  of  musical  instruments,  the  building  of  cities ;  and 
surely  so  huge  a  craft  as  the  ark,  with  its  interior  stories 
and  divisions,  required  no  mean   skill  for  its  construction. 


100  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

The  knowledge  of  the  arts  must  of  course  have  been  trans- 
mitted from  antediluvian  times  through  the  survivors  of  the 
flood ;  and  we  read,  soon  after,  of  the  building  of  great  cities, 
and  of  the  tower  of  Babel.  But  for  such  works,  and  espe- 
cially for  founding  such  an  empire  as  was  ancient  Egypt,  there 
was  need  of  centuries  for  the  growth  of  a  population  in  num- 
bers and  resources  equal  to  the  gigantic  structures  that  crown 
the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  less  than  two  centuries  between 
Archbishop  Usher's  date  of  the  cessation  of  the  flood  and 
Piazzi  Smith's  calculation  of  the  date  of  the  Great  Pyramid, 
was  far  too  short  an  interval  for  results  upon  a  scale  so  mag- 
nificent. 

The  Tablet  of  Sethos  I.,  recently  discovered  in  the  great 
temple  of  Abydos,  introduces  a  new  element  of  complication 
into  these  calculations.  Upon  this  Tablet  a  monarch  whose 
period  is  pretty  clearly  determined  as  of  the  fifteenth  century 
before  Christ,  is  represented  as  ofiering  sacrifice  to  his  royal 
predecessors,  of  whom  there  are  seventy-six  in  an  unbroken 
line  up  to  Menes ;  and  this  line  tallies  with  the  fragmentary 
lists  from  other  sources,  showing  that  this  was  the  official  list 
of  recognized  sovereigns  in  regular  succession.  Eight  reigns 
in  a  century  would  by  the  analogy  of  history,  in  long  periods, 
be  a  large  allowance.  This  is  greater  than  the  average  for 
the  thousand  years  of  English  history  from  Egbert  to  Vic- 
toria, through  all  the  changes  of  Anglo-Saxons,  Danes,  Saxons, 
Normans,  the  Plantagenets,  the  contests  of  Lancaster  and 
York,  the  Tudors,  the  Stuarts,  the  Commonwealth,  and  the 
Revolution.  In  settled  times  the  average  is  not  over  five  to 
a  century.  But  even  an  average  of  ten  reigns  in  a  century 
would  require  the  whole  time  from  Sethos  I.  back  to  the 
Flood  of  our  common  chronology  to  dispose  of  the  seventy- 
six  predecessors  of  that  king.  And  when  we  have  arrived  at 
Menes,  we  find  already  an  empire  consolidated  from  previous 


ANTIQUITY  OF  THE  NEGRO  RACE.  101 

district  governments,  and  capable  of  building  the  great  city  of 
Memphis,  with  its  magnificent  temples  and  towers,  and  its  huge 
dyke  that  turned  the  course  of  the  Nile.  Either,  then,  we 
must  i^lace  the  Flood  much  farther  back  upoji  the  chronolo- 
gical scale,  or  must  admit  not  only  that  it  -was  not  universal 
in  territorial  extent  (which  is  altogctliGr  jii-obaolQ/.;  but  that 
it  was  not  universal  in  the  destruction  of  mankind,  wiiidk 
would  seem  to  contradict  both  the  letter  and  the  spirit  of  the 
sacred  record. 

2.  The  unchanged  appearance  of  leading  types  of  man- 
kind, as  far  back  as  we  can  trace  these  in  history,  requires 
a  considerable  extension  of  time  to  account  for  their  oricfin, 
provided  we  adhere  to  the  physiological  unity  of  the  race. 
Upon  Egyptian  monuments  that  date  back  from  1400  to 
2000  years  before  Christ,  the  negro  is  depicted  with  color 
and  features  as  marked  and  characteristic  as  he  exhibits  at 
this  day.  When  did  this  type  originate,  which  has  remained 
unchanged  for  more  than  three  thousand  years  ?  K  the  type 
itself  was  a  gradual  product  of  time,  how  tnuch  time  before 
the  date  when  it  begins  to  appear  upon  Egyptian  monuments 
was  necessary  to  establish  its  marked  and  unvarying  features  ? 
According  to  a  tablet  of  Sethos  I.  the  Egyptians  divided 
mankind  into  four  principal  races — the  Red  (Egyi^tian),  the 
Yellow  (Ammonites),  the  Black  (Negroes),  and  the  White 
(Libyans).  If  all  mankind  were  descended  from  a  single 
pair ;  and  again,  if  the  whole  peopled  earth  was  destroyed  by 
the  flood,  with  the  solitary  exception  of  the  family  of  Noah, 
how  much  time  was  required  to  originate  peculiarities  of  race 
which  can  be  traced  back  without  variation  through  the 
whole  known  course  of  history  ?  In  the  present  state  of 
scientific  knowledge,  this  whole  subject  is  wrapped  in  ob- 
scurity. 

3.  The  formation  of  Language,  and  its  distribution  into  the 


102  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 


* 


great  classes  of  human  speech,  call  for  an  extension  of  time, 
if  one  adheres  to  the  belief  that  all  languages  were  derived 
from  one  primitive  root,  which  is  only  another  form  of  the 
doctrine, of  the  unity  of  ^e  race.  The  hues  of  language  con- 
vergeJ  'toward  Oeritrai  Asia,  and  in  the  far  past  its  many 
th'reuu§  .c^R  be  wQvep.  ^nto  a  small  number  of  strands,  which 
the  scieuce  of  Comparative  Philology  may  yet  succeed  in 
twisting  together  in  a  single  cord ;  but  cautious  philologists 
doubt  whether  conclusive  testimony  for  or  against  the  unity 
of  the  human  race  Avill  ever  be  derived  from  language  alone. 
If  there  was  one  primitive  language  of  the  race,  the  Biblical 
story  of  the  eonfusion  of  tongues  at  Babel  would  account  for 
the  diversities  of  human  speech.  But  when  the  trustworthi- 
ness of  the  Biblical  narrative  is  under  consideration,  we  have 
no  right  to  assume  the  miraculous  element  as  a  mode  of  meet- 
ing difficulties  that  seem  to  embarrass  the  narrative  itself. 
That  it  is  difficult  to  provide  for  a  normal  division  of  tongues 
from  one  primitive  root  within  the  period  of  our  received 
Chronology,  must  be  obvious  to  any  who  will  reflect  upon  the 
elements  that  enter  into  the  construction  and  growth  of  lan- 
guage. 

4.  Man  in  the  fossil  state,  although  rarely  found,  is  another 
element  of  perplexity  in  the  question  of  his  antiquity.  To  be 
sure,  it  does  not  require  any  great  length  of  time,  nowadays, 
to  produce  a  human  fossil !  There  were  many  such  in  the 
churches  and  in  politics  in  the  old  times  of  slavery !  ISTor  is 
the  time  required  for  producing  a  proper  fossil  so  great  as  the 
popular  mind  is  apt  to  imagine.  To  persons  unfamiliar  with 
geology,  human  skeletons  in  a  fossil  state  are  a  great  wonder  ; 
but  some  of  the  most  complete  of  these  are  of  recent  origin. 
For  instance,  such  skeletons  found  in  the  island  of  Guada- 
loupe — one  of  which  is  in  the  British  Museum — were  taken 
from  a  shell  limestone  of  modern  origin,  and  which  is  still  in 


MAN  AT  THE  CLOSE  OF  THE  GLACIAL  PERIOD.  103 

process  of  formation.     These  arc  tlie  remains  of  Caribs  kiUed 
in  battle  not  over  two  hundred  years  ago.* 

Professor  Guyot,f  and  others  of  the  more  conservative 
school  of  geologists,  are  disposed  to  admit  the  existence  of 
Man  during  the  glacial  age.  There  are  traces  in  the  Northern 
Hemisphere  of  two  great  ice-periods,  each  succeeded  by  a 
time  of  quiet,  and  this  again  by  fluvial  action.  The  same 
periods  were  marked  by  great  oscillations,  and  especially  by 
the  submergence  of  the  land  northward.  That  life  coex- 
isted with  this  condition  of  the  globe,  is  evident  from  the 
remains  of  the  elephant,  the  rhinoceros,  the  hippopotamus, 
etc. ;  and  the  evidences  of  Man's  existence  during  the  later 
glacial  period  are  to  be  found  just  where  one  should  look  for 
them — in  the  terraces  along  the  hills,  in  the  peat  bogs  in  the 
valleys,  and  in  the  river  caves — localities  in  which  human 
implements  and  bones  have  been  discovered.  But  Professor 
Guyot  calculates,  from  astronomical  data,  that  this  great  ice 
age  was  not  more  than  nine  or  ten  thousand  years  back. 
This,  however,  is  a  period  that  defies  our  present  chronolog- 
ical scales,  and  we  can  only  wait  for  further  Hght.  Prestwich, 
a  candid  and  able  investigator,  makes  a  suggestion  of  some 
weight  for  abbreviating  this  relative  antiquity :  "  The  evidence 
from  the  occurrence  of  human  relics,  with  the  bones  of  extinct 
animals,  as  it  at  present  stands,  does  not  seem  to  me  tc 
necessitate  the  carrpng  of  Man  back  in  past  time,  so  much 
as  the  bringing  forward  the  extinct  animals  toward  our  own 
time." 

But  though  at  present  we  must  despair  of  any  definite 
conclusions  ujjon  the  Antiquity  of  Man,  there  are  certain 
principles  of  adjustment  between  Science  and  the  Scriptures 
which  we  should  hold  distinctly  in  view. 

*  Dana's  "  Manual  of  Geology,"  p.  580.  +  The  "  Morse  "  Lectures  for  1869. 


104:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Chronology  is  not  minutely  mapped  out  in  the  Bible.  The 
order  of  succession  is  given  without  reference  always  to  the 
scale  of  time;  the  facts  themselves,  as  stated  in  the  book  of 
Genesis,  may  all  be  true ;  the  succession  of  events  there  re- 
corded may  be  also  true  and  correct ;  the  creation,  the 
temptation  and  fall,  the  dispersion,  the  flood,  the  after-disper- 
sion and  migration  of  the  nations — these  all  may  be  true  as 
facts,  and  yet  we  may  not  be  able  to  adjust  to  them  properly 
a  sHding  scale  of  Chronology  in  respect  to  years. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  defines  as  the  Chronology  of  "  Time- 
relative,"  time  which  is  measurable,  not  by  years,  but  only  by 
an  ascertained  order  or  succession  of  events.  After  we  pass 
the  limits  of  known  history,  this  Chronology  of  order  is  the 
only  form  in  which  events  can  be  measured.  In  pre-historic 
times,  and  also  in  the  shadowy  twilight  where  tradition 
begins  to  assume  the  shape  of  history,  Chronology  is  neces- 
sarily obscure — indeed,  one  of  the  most  obscure  topics  that 
science  and  history  have  to  deal  with.  It  is  particularly 
obscure  and  difficult  when  we  have  to  do  with  Oriental 
modes  of  computation,  which  are  (essentially  different  from 
ours.  Before  the  time  of  Abraham,  the  narrative  given  in 
the  Book  of  Genesis  may  be  a  condensed  epitome  of  fore- 
going history — not  a  consecutive  line  of  historical  events 
year  by  year,  and  generation  by  generation,  but  a  condensed 
epitome  of  what  had  occurred  in  the  world  from  the  creation 
to  that  time ;  for  if  you  will  scrutinize  it  carefully,  you  will 
see  that  in  some  instances  the  names  of  individuals  are  put 
for  tribes,  dynasties,  and  nations,  and  that  it  is  no  part  of 
the  object  of  the  historian  to  give  the  consecutive  course  of 
affairs  in  the  world  at  large.  I  have  much  hope  in  this  matter 
from  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  the  Arabic,  and  its  wide 
diffusion  among  a  people  cognate  to  the  Hebrews.  I  have  no 
doubt  that  there  is  yet  to  come  to  us  from  Arabian  and  other 


ADAM  A  TYPICAL  MAN.  105 

Oriental  sources  a  mode  of  interpreting  Chronology  according 
to  these  lists  of  names,  which  I  do  not  believe  we  have  yet 
fairly  got  hold  of,  and  therefore  I  am  not  troubled  by  any 
seeming  discrepancies.  New  light  may  arise  upon  the  science 
of  interpretation ;  and  when  Ave  shall  have  learned  more  about 
the  idioms  of  Oriental  nations  in  matters  of  Chronology,  we 
may  obtain  all  the  margin  that  we  shall  require  in  the  matter 
of  Man's  antiquity — that  is,  so  far  as  monuments  and  tradi- 
tions are  concerned.  Moreover,  the  early  history  may  be,  in 
some  sense,  typical — describing  the  typical  Man  as  God  made 
him  to  be,  and  how  he  was  ^^laced  in  resj^ect  to  Nature  before 
he  sinned.  Yet,  in  this  very  matter  of  Chronology,  there  are 
mternal  evidences  of  truth  in  this  early  Hebrew  narration,  as 
contrasted  with  other  ancient  stories,  in  these  two  principles : 
First,  the  absence  of  those  immense  vague  periods  which 
precede  the  historical  chronologies  of  all  other  people;  the 
absence  of  that  legendary  phase  of  things  which  ifs  so  marked 
in  the  history  of  the  Egyptians  and  Hindoos.  And  secondly^ 
there  is  no  attempt  in  this  early  history  to  magnify  the  Jew- 
ish people.  Every  other  nation  of  antiquity  sets  out  to 
magnify  itself  as  descended  from  the  gods — perhaps  as  having 
originated  upon  the  soil  it  occupies,  and,  being  thus  favored 
of  Heaven,  as  having  come  down  from  an  immense  antiquity. 
Now,  there  is  no  such  endeavor  to  magnify  the  Jewish 
people  in  this  Biblical  story.  It  does  not  place  the  begin- 
ning of  Man  in  the  country  destined  to  be  their  country,  but 
off  in  the  far  East ;  and  it  gives  the  history  of  Man  as  Max, 
and  with  no  attempt  at  self-glorification.  All  this  is  signifi- 
cant of  the  historical  in  contrast  with  the  mythical  style. 
At  the  same  time  this  history  has  ever  in  view  one  definite 
purpose ;  it  does  not  profess  to  be  a  secular  liistory  of  Man- 
kind, but  the  history  of  certain   typical  or    elect   persons, 

families,  and  races,  given  to  illustrate  the  providential  and 

5* 


106  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

moral  government  of  God.  Thus,  after  the  fall  of  Adam 
and  the  crime  of  Cain,  Seth  is  the  selected  typical  Man,  and 
the  course  of  the  history  runs  mainly  in  the  line  of  his 
posterity ;  and  when  in  the  course  of  ages  the  descendants 
of  Seth  apostatize,  Noah^  who  remains  faithful,  is  selected  as 
the  typical  Man,  and  is  carried  through  the  flood  to  become 
the  founder  of  a  new  world.  In  like  manner,  when  the 
descendants  of  Noah  have  become  degenerate,  Abraham  is 
selected  to  be  the  Father  of  the  Faithful,  the  head  of  a 
commonwealth  both  civil  and  spiritual  that  shall  thereafter 
be  in  the  world  as  the  kingdom  of  God.  ISTow,  some  would 
apply  this  obvious  principle  of  selection  in  the  early  Biblical 
history  to  the  case  of  Adam,  and  regard  him,  not  as  strictly 
the  first  man  created  and  the  sole  progenitor  of  the  human 
race,  but  the  first  called  to  a  rej^resentative  position  as  the 
Son  of  God,  and  the  head  of  a  new  type  of  Humanity. 
Such  was  the  doctrine  of  Perriere,  of  Bordeaux,  in  the 
seventeenth  century,  in  his  famous  treatise  on  the  Pre-Adam- 
ites,*  which  has  been  revived  of  late  by  an  anonymous 
English  author,  f  Some  plausible  arguments  are  urged  for 
this  opinion ;  for  instance,  that  Cain,  in  going  forth  from  the 
home  of  Adam,  expected  to  find  the  regions  round  about 
peopled,  and  that  their  inhabitants  would  abhor  him  because 
of  his  crime ;  that  he  must  have  found  a  wife  among  other 
tribes,  or  have  married  his  own  sister,  contrary  to  the  divine 
law  of  marriage ;  that  he  built  a  city,  for  which  he  must 
have  had  both  laborers  and  a  population.  It  is  further 
argued  that,  in  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  Man  is  intro- 
duced as  the  close  of  the  geological  system,  and  is  there 
spoken  of  in  a  general  way ;  and  that,  after  a  long  interval, 


*  "  ProE-Adamitce^  sive  Exercitatio  super  versibus  12, 13,  and  14,  Cap.  V.   Epistolae  D. 
Pauli  ad  Romanes.    Quibns  indicuntur  primi  Homines  ante  Adamum  conditi," 
t  The  "  Genesis  of  the  Earth  and  of  Man,"  Ediubursh,  1S5G. 


MAN  THE  LATEST  AND  HIGHEST  WORK.        107 

the  second  chapter  of  Genesis  introduces  a  particular  type 
of  Man,  the  Adamite,  as  representing  the  beginning  of 
liistory  under  a  special  divine  plan.  After  the  world  had 
long  been  peopled  with  rude  barbarian  races,  this  diviner 
Man  was  introduced  with  a  view  to  a  kingdom  of  sj^iritual 
power ;  but  his  apostasy  frustrated  for  a  time  the  divine 
purpose.  Nevertheless  in  the  seed  of  Seth  the  worshipers  of 
the  true  God  were  for  a  time  revived ;  but  when  these  "  sons 
of  God "  became  enamored  of  the  daughters  of  the  old 
sensuous,  idolatrous  stock  around  them,  and  entered  into  an 
unholy  alliance,  the  flood  was  sent  to  exterminate  that 
apostate  seed.  Such  is  the  theory,  and  although  open  to 
some  serious  objections,  it  serves  tQ  show  one  possible  way  in 
which  the  Bible  and  Science  may  yet  be  harmonized  upon 
the  question  of  the  Antiquity  of  Man  and  the  unity  of  the 
race.  It  may  prove  eventually  that  there  is  in  this  brief 
record  in  Genesis  a  margin  for  all  the  discoveries  of  Science. 

For  the  present,  however,  we  must  accept  whatever  is 
clearly  established  as  /act,  even  though  we  can  not  fully 
reconcile  one  class  of  facts  with  another.  It  is  unscientific  to 
frame  a  theory  upon  one  class  of  facts  in  opj^osition  to  other 
facts  that  rest  upon  reasonable  evidence.  Whatever  conclu- 
sion may  at  last  be  reached  concerning  the  Antiquity  of  Man, 
there  are  two  truths  established  in  the  foregoing  lectures  that 
can  not  be  affected  by  it, 

1.  The  succession  of  eveJits  in  the  creation  is  unimpaired, 
and  Man  appeared  in  the  order  assigned  to  him  as  the  latest 
and  highest  work  of  the  Creator.  "It  is  not  known  that 
any  new  species  of  plants  or  animals  have  appeared  on  the 
earth  since  the  creation  of  Man."  *  He  was  the  crown  of  the 
whole  series.  ^ 

*  Prof.  Dana. 


108  MAN:   IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

2.  Whenever  Man  began  to  be,  lie  had,  at  least  in  rudi- 
mentary exercise,  the  place  of  dominion  over  Nature  to  which 
the  Bible  appoints  him.  "  Even  in  the  most  rudimentary- 
form,  the  use  of  an  implement  fashioned  for  a  special  purpose 
is  absolutely  j)eculiar  to  Man.  There  is  quite  as  much 
ingenuity  and  skill  in  the  manufacture  of  a  knife  of  flint  as  in 
the  manufacture  of  a  knife  of  iron.  As  regards  his  charac- 
teristic mental  powers,  Man  has  always  been  Man,  and 
nothing  less."*  That  able  scientist,  so  often  quoted,  Carl 
Vogt,  also  admits  the  strong  human  characteristics  of  Man  in 
the  most  piimitive  period.  "  This  powerful,  tall,  and  strong 
primitive  man,  who  lived  by  the  side  of  the  cave-bear  and  the 
mammoth,  already  honored  his  dead  by  burying  them  in 
grottoes  closed  with  slabs,  and  furnished  them  with  meat  and 
arms  for  their  journey  into  another  world.  He  knew  the  use 
of  fire,  and  constructed  hearths,  where  he  roasted  his  meat ; 
for  of  pottery  the  traces  are  but  few.  His  implements  or 
weapons  consist  of  rude  hatchets  and  knjves,  which  were 
struck  off  from  a  flint  block  by  another  stone,  and  of  worked 
bones  emplojed  for  handle'sj  arrows,  clubs,  or  awls.  This 
wild,  primitire  man  endeavored  to  ornament  his  person  with 
perforated  pieces  of  coral  and  the  teeth  of  wild  animals.  He 
probably  dressed  in  skins  or  prepared  bark  of  trees."  ;:>. 

There  was  Man  at  his  starting-point,  at  an  immeasurable 
distance  in  characteristic  adaptations  above  any  creature 
before  him.  We  may  fitly  close  this  whole  review  of  his 
origin  and  antiquity  with  these  eloquent  words  of  Professor 
Dana : 

"When Man  appears,  the  animal  element  is  no  longer  dom- 
inant, but  Mind  in  the  possession  of  a  being  at  the  head  of 
the  kingdom  of  life.     Man  was  the  first  being  that  was  not 

♦  Duke  of  Argyll,  "  Primeval  Man." 


SOME  RECENT  WORKS  ON  MAN.  109 

finished  on  reaching  adult  growth,  but  was  provided  with 
powers  for  indefinite  expansion,  a  will  for  a  life  of  work,  and 
boundless  aspirations  to  lead  to  endless  improvement.  He 
was  the  first  being  capable  of  an  intelligent  survey  of  Xature 
and  comprehension  of  her  laws  ;  the  first  capable  of  augment- 
ing his  strength  by  bending  Nature  to  his  service,  rendering 
thereby  a  weak  body  stronger  than  all  possible  animal  force ; 
the  first  capable  of  deriving  happiness  from  beauty,  truth,  and 
goodness ;  of  apprehending  eternal  right ;  of  looking  from 
the  finite  toward  the  infinite,  and  communing  with  God  his 
Maker."  * 

Note. — In  addition  to  the  authorities  cited  in  the  text  and 
notes  of  the  preceding  lecture,  the  reader  who  desires  a  con- 
venient summary  of  results  concerning  the  Antiquity  of  Man, 
is  referred  to  the  following  works  : 

Z? Homme  Fossile  en  Europe  par  M.  Le  Hon.  This  vol- 
ume treats  of  the  industrial  occupations  of  the  primitive  Man, 
bis  customs,  and  his  works  of  art. 

Enthullimgen  aus  der  Urgeschichte^  oder :  Existirt  das  Mens- 
chengeschlecht  nur  6000  Jahre  ?  von  Dr.  J.  II.  Thomassen, 
Leipzig,  1869.  This  book  exhibits  in  a  popular  form  the  re- 
sults of  the  latest  scientific  investigations  upon  the  origin  and 
deyelopment  of  Man.  These  are  presented  under  a  two-fold 
division — the  Natural  History  of  the  Race,  and  the  History 
of  Civilization.  All  facts  of  recent  discovery  are  method- 
ically arranged  with  the  proper  authorities.  The  writer  in- 
clines to  the  notion  of  a  great  antiquity  and  to  the  theory  of 
development.  Yet  he  afiirms  that  the  derivation  of  Man 
from  the  ape  must  be  purely  a  question  of  lyrohahiUties^  and 
he  disclaims  Materialism,  following  Schafit'hausen  in  these 
words  :  "  The  investigations  of  natural  history  do  not  concern 
themselves  with  the  divine,  the  heavenly  derivation  of  Man, 
but  only  with  the  eartldy,  the  natural.     And  why  should  it  be 

*  Professor  Dana,  Qeolo^. 


110  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

deemed  nnworthy  of  Man  to  regard  him  as  the  last  and  high- 
est development  of  animal  life  ?  Did  he  come  forth  any  the 
less  good  from  the  hand  of  the  Creator,  if  in  the  dark  womb 
of  untold  ages  the  animal  type  was  more  and  more  ennobled, 
until  that  human  form  was  attained  which  Man  regards  as  the 
image  of  his  Maker  ?  " 

Die  neuesten  Forschungen  und  TJieorieeri  auf  deni  Gehiete 
der  Schopfungsgeschichte  von  Dr.  Friedrich  Pfaff,  Frankfurt, 
a  M.,  1868.  After  a  careful  statement  of  the  discoveries  bear- 
ing upon  the  Antiquity  of  Man,  Dr.  Pfaff  infers  that  Man  did 
not  appear  till  after  the  ice  period.  He  declares  the  uncer- 
tainty of  all  geological  calculations  intended  to  fix  the  period 
of  Man's  origin,  and  refutes  Lyell's  arbitrary  estimates  from 
the  present  rate  of  formation  in  drift  and  deltas.  He  finds  no 
traces  of  Man,  with  any  certainty,  farther  back  than  the  great 
climatic  changes  of  the  Quaternary  period,  "  the  most  reliable 
of  which  do  not  reach  back  more  than  5,000  to  7,000  years 
from  the  present  time." 

The  pubUcation  of  Professor  Arnold  Guyot's  lectures  on 
Man  Primeval^  delivered  in  1869  before  the  Union  Theolog- 
ical Seminary,  will  furnish  the  public  with  the  best  exposition 
yet  made  of  the  discoveries  of  modern  Science  in  their  rela- 
tions to  Bibhcal  history.  Some  of  the  most  important  sug- 
gestions on  this  point  in  the  preceding  lecture  were  derived 
from  conversations  with  Professor  Guyot,  who  is  ever  ready 
to  dispense  his  knowledge  for  the  advancement  of  Truth  and 
Religion. 


LECTURE    yi. 

m\c  BiXhh'dt^  ftitirc  for  m<tn. 

Gen.  ii.  1.  Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished,  and  all  the  host  of  them. 

2.  And  on  the  seventh  day  God  ended  his  work  which  he  had  made  ;  and  he  rested 
on  the  seventh  day  from  all  his  work  which  he  had  made. 

3.  And  God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  t-aactifi»d  it:  because  that  in  it  he  had 
rested  from  all  his  work  which  God  created  and  made. 

We  now  fairly  enter  upon  the  History  of  Man,  to  which 
hereafter  this  book  is  devoted — especially  Man  in  his  relations 
to  the  Kingdom  of  God.  The  Creator  himself  is  here  pre- 
sented as  resting  from  His  work  and  instituting  a  commemo- 
rative Day  of  Rest — not  for  His  own  purposes,  but  in  the 
interest  and  care  of  Humanity.  The  work  ©f  creation  is  now 
contemplated  with  specific  reference  to  Man  and  his  uses  and 
obligations.  *'  The  heavens  and  the  earth  were  finished,  and 
all  the  host  of  them  " — that  is,  the  heavens  and  the  earth  as 
Man  beholds  them  and  is  interested  in  them.  We  are  not 
here  to  understand  by  the  heavens  the  whole  starry  universe, 
as  now  made  known  to  us  by  the  calculations  and  appliances 
of  astronomy,  but  simply  the  heavens  as  visible  to  the  eye  of 
Man,  and  related  to  Man  and  his  habitation.  These  are 
sketched  in  outline  before  us  as  the  work  of  Almighty  God. 

This  work  was  now  finished.  There  had  been,  as  we  have 
seen,  a  course  of  operations  bringing  the  physical  creation  to 
a  state  of  preparation  for  Man,  its  destined  occupant  and  lord. 
At  each  successive  stage  in  this  work — after  the  dry  land  was 
separated  from  the  seas — after  the  earth  brought  forth  grass, 
herbs,  and  fruit  trees — after  the  heavenly  bodies  appeared  in 
their  relations  to  this  world,  for  signs  and  seasons,  and  for 


112  MAK:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

days  and  years — after  the  waters  brought  forth  abundantly 
moving  creatures,  and  fowl  were  created  to  fly  above  the  earth 
— and  again  after  the  earth  brought  forth  the  living  creature, 
cattle,  and  creeping  things,  and  all  manner  of  beasts — at  each 
successive  stage  in  this  grand  process  God  had  pronounced 
it  GOOD  ;  and  now,  with  the  appearing  of  Man  upon  the  high- 
est platform  of  this  physical  creation,  the  whole  work  was 
declared  finished.  At  any  previous  point  in  this  process, 
to  the  view  of  an  angel  the  world  might  have  seemed  incom- 
plete and  aimless ;  yet  not  wholly  aimless,  inasmuch  as  Man 
himself  was  prefigured,  both  in  his  physical  structure,  by  the 
homologues  in  the  animal  creation,  and  also  in  the  general  order 
and  arrangement  of  things  for  the  support  of  such  a  being. 
At  all  events,  we  can  now  trace  the  preparatory  steps  in  the 
adaptation  and  structure  of  the  globe  for  the  advent  of  Man. 

The  work  was  "finished"  also  as  to  the  Divine  plan  and 
arrangement  in  respect  to  elements  and  materials.  I  have 
before  noted  the  fact  that  Science  has  not  yet  ascertained 
that  any  new  distinct  species  has  appeared  in  the  lower  cre- 
ation since  the  advent  of  Man ;  and  although  Science  has  de- 
veloi^ed  to  Man  elements  and  materials  in  the  constitution  of 
the  earth  that  to  him  were  new,  there  is  no  evidence  of  the 
creation  of  any  new  elements  or  materials  in  organic  nature 
since  the  appearance  of  Man.     The  whole  work  was  finished 

"  All  the  host  of  them ; " — this  expression  denotes  both  the 
splendor  of  the  heavenly  bodies  and  their  orderly  array.  It 
is  a  figure  derived  from  the  marshahng  of  an  army  in  which 
both  these  features  appear — splendor  and  order.  It  is  a  very 
common  figure  of  speech  in  the  Bible  api^lied  to  the  heavenly 
bodies.  "  By  the  word  of  the  Lord  were  the  heavens  made, 
and  all  the  host  of  them  by  the  breath  of  his  mouth."  *    "  He 

*  Psalm  xxxiy  6. 


THE  GLORY  OF  THE  HEAVENLY  HOST.  113 

telleth  the  number  of  the  stars,  He  calleth  them  all  by  their 
names."  *  "  Lift  up  your  eyes  on  high,  and  behold  who  hath 
created  these  things,  that  bringeth  out  their  host  by  number ; 
He  calleth  them  all  by  their  names."  f  The  Bible  recognizes 
the  order  and  unity  of  i)Ian  which  are  found  in  the  physical 
universe.  Thus  David,  in  the  8th  Psalm,  sings,  "When  I  con- 
sider Thy  heavens,  the  work  of  Thy  fingers,  the  moon  and 
the  stars  which  Thou  hast  ordained."  The  term  "  fingers " 
denotes  carefulness  of  detail ;  the  term  "  ordained,"  the  es- 
tablished  order  in  the  heavenly  bodies.  As  a  shepherd  boy 
upon  the  plains  of  Bethlehem,  in  the  wakeful  hours  of  night, 
David  had  gazed  upon  that  wondrous  sky  which  overhangs 
the  land  of  Palestine,  the  transparent  depth  and  pureness  of 
the  atmosphere,  the  number  and  splendor  of  the  stars,  the 
brightness  of  the  moon,  the  glory  of  the  constellations,  the 
Pleiades  chiming  the  advent  of  the  spring,  Orion  girding 
himself  in  the  autumnal  skies  as  for  battle  with  the  storms, 
Arcturus  guiding  his  sons  in  their  nightly  march  around  the 
pole  ;  and  these  contemplations  impressed  him  with  the  or- 
derly arrangement  of  the  heavens — the  "  work  of  the  fingers 
of  God." 

The  Creator  is  represented  in  the  text  as  contemplating 
His  work  with  infinite  satisfaction.  He  did  not  withdraw, 
like  Bramah,  into  a  state  of  unconsciousness  after  having 
manifested  His  power  in  the  production  of  the  physical  uni- 
verse— for  Bramah  was  but  the  manifestation  of  God  in  crea- 
tion, while  Vishnu  is  now  being  manifested  in  preservation, 
and  Siva  will  be  his  manifestation  m  destruction.  The  God 
of  the  Bible  is  not  an  impassive  being,  indifferent  to  the 
works  He  has  formed ;  but  He  rejoices  in  all  the  work  of  His 
hands.     The  sublime  song  of  heaven  recorded  by  John  in  the 

♦Psalm  cxMi.  4.  t  Isaiah  xl.  2& 


114  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

Revelation,  the  song  of  the  four  living  creatures,  and  the 
four  and  twenty  elders  is,  "  Thou  art  worthy,  O  Lord,  to 
receive  glory,  and  honor,  and  power,^for  Thou  hast  created 
all  things  ;  and  for  Thy  pleasure  they  are  and  were  created." 
The  use  of  the  word  "  pleasure "  here  can  not  be  explained 
as  mere  anthropomorphism.  God  is  a  being  of  soul ;  He  has 
feeling,  and  He  expresses  it ;  and  when  He  looks  upon  the 
works  He  has  made,  He  is  glad.  His  infinite  heart  dilates 
with  joy  in  the  contemplation  of  the  beauty,  the  order,  the 
majesty,  and  the  splendor  of  the  work  of  His  hand. 

On  the  seventh  day  God  ended  His  worli  which  Lie  had 
made ;  and  here  began  a  new  period,  in  the  midst  of 
which  we  now  are.  "  He  rested  on  the  seventh  day  from  all 
Llis  work  which  He  had  made."  To  "  rest "  here  does  not 
mean  to  seek  repose  from  fatigue,  but  to  susj)end  activity  in 
a  particular  mode  of  operation,  to  cease  from  doing  thus  and 
so.  The  Creator  has  not  withdrawn  himself  from  the  super- 
vision of  the  world  and  Man.  As  He  is  not  iudiiferent  to  the 
beauty  and  order  of  His  work,  neither  is  He  indifferent  to  the 
actions  of  His  creatures.  The  Bible  is  fuU  of  the  doctrine 
of  God's  continued  providence  over  the  creatures  that  He  has 
made.  In  this  sense,  therefore,  as  the  constant  and  universal 
preserver.  Lie  could  not  be  said  to  rest.  His  tender  mercies 
are  over  aU  His  works.  Our  Saviour  taught  this  doctrine  of  a 
constant  personal  providence,  in  Llis  sermon  on  the  mount, 
carrying  this  out  even  so  minutely  as  to  numbering  the  hairs 
of  our  head,  and  watching  the  fall  of  a  sparrow  ;  and  it  was 
in  speaking  of  the  Sabbath  itself  that  He  said,  "  My  Father 
worlceth  hitherto,  and  I  work."  From  the  first  moment  of 
creation  unto  this  hour  God  has  continued  His  supervision 
of  the  work?  of  His  hand.  The  suspension  of  created  activ- 
ity, therefore,  constitutes  the  "  rest "  spoken  of  in  the  text. 
The  present  course  of  things  is  the  proj^er  Rest-day  of  the 


REST,  THE  SUSPENSION  OF  CREATIVE  ENERGY.    115 

Almighty.  lie  has  put  forth  no  creative  energy  since  He 
brought  Man  into  being ;  but  at  the  end  of  the  world,  in  the 
changes  that  shall  produce  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth, 
God  will  resume  that  creative  activity  which  is  now  in  sus- 
pense. Until  then  He  rests.  As  one  has  said,  "  What  we  call 
a  course  of  nature  is  the  very  Sabbath  of  God,  nature  itself 
being  that  holy  pause  in  which  God  rests  from  His  creative 
energies,  that  ineffable  repose  in  which,  though  superintend- 
ing and  preserving,  He  provides  for  Man  through  law  that  he 
can  comprehend,  and  an  executing  word  that  he  can  devoutly 
study."  *  "  God  rested  on  the  seventh  day,"  that  is,  as  the 
last  clause  of  the  verse  explains  it,  "  He  ceased  from  all  his 
loorh  that  He  had  made." 

"  God  blessed  the  seventh  day,  and  sanctified  it."  Obvi- 
ously this  could  not  have  been  for  Himself,  but  for  man  in 
relation  to  his  Maker.  To  bless  a  day  was  to  set  it  apart 
to  be  a  blessing  ;  but  there  was  no  sense  in  which  God  could 
make  any  one  portion  of  duration  more  of  a  blessing  to  Him- 
self than  another.  He  being  always  self-contained  and  mfinite 
in  his  blessings.  To  "  hallow"  the  day  was  to  dedicate  it  to 
some  sacred,  moral,  and  beneficial  use ;  but  of  course  God 
could  not  have  made  one  period  of  time  more  holy  than 
another  to  Himself.  The  sanctifying  must  have  had  reference 
to  its  use  by  and  for  others.  This  sacred  day  is  God's  day, 
which  man  should  devote  to  Him  in  some  special  or  uncom- 
mon way,  turning  aside  from  the  common  occupations  of  life 
to  a  separate  pecuUar  observance  of  this  j^ortion  of  time. 
Hence  this  grand  day  of  the  Almighty,  this  on-going  day,  this 
day  which,  dating  from  the  creation  of  jNIan  as  an  intellectual 
creature,  shall  continue  till  the  world  and  the  present  course 
of  time  shall  close,  is  the  type  of  the  Sabbath,  the  Rest-day 

*  Prof.  Taylcr  Lewis,  in  Lange's  "  Commentary  on  Genesis.'" 


116  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

for  the  creatures  of  God.  The  blessing  and  the  hallowing 
was  the  solemn  establishing  of  the  institution,  since  such  a 
formality  would  hardly  have  been  entered  upon  for  a  mere 
passing  occasion.  It  was  with  reference  to  an  institution  to 
be  continued  through  after-times;  and  the  proof  of  this 
appears  all  along  in  the  early  history  of  the  race.  For  in- 
stance, we  trace  the  division  of  time  into  weeks,  in  the  account 
of  the  flood,  where  Noah  is  said  to  have  sent  forth  the  dove 
at  intervals  of  seven  days.  Again,  in  the  life  of  Jacob,  we 
find  mention  of  a  week  as  a  recognized  division  of  time,  and 
so  in  other  portions  of  the  early  history  of  the  world.  Some 
have  supposed  that  this  division  was  suggested  by  the  phases 
of  the  moon,  the  lunar  month  being  subdivided  into  four  equal 
periods.  But  the  phases  of  the  moon,  at  the  point  of  transi- 
tion from  one  to  another,  are  too  obscure  to  have  suggested 
this  as  a  division  of  time  so  early  in  the  history  of  the  race. 
That  would  imply  a  knowledge  of  astronomy,  which  we  can 
hardly  suppose  to  have  been  then  attained.  The  year  and  the 
month  are  marked  off  on  the  great  dial  of  the  firmament,  as  is 
the  shortest  division  of  the  day  and  the  night.  The  lights  in 
heaven  are  for  signs  and  for  seasons,  and  for  days  and  for 
years ;  but  there  is  nothing  in  the  phenomena  of  Nature  which 
corresponds  to  the  seventh-day  division  in  a  manner  so  strik- 
ing as  to  have  impressed  upon  an  unscientific  observer  such  a 
measurement  of  time.  This  would  require  much  nicety  of 
astronomical  observation;  and  hence  we  must  regard  the 
week  as  an  arbitrary  division,  and  look  for  its  explanation  in 
some  other  quarter.  The  week  was  a  wide-spread  usage 
among  the  nations  of  antiquity.  The  Egyptians  and  the 
Hebrews  had  it,  and  so  had  other  early  people  of  the  East. 
It  was  well  known,  also,  far  back  in  Hindoo  and  Chinese 
history.  This  general  consent  of  antiquity  to  a  division  of 
time  which  is  not  strongly  marked  as  a  division  of  Nature, 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  THE   WEEK.  117 

can  best  be  accounted  for  upon  the  supposition  of  some 
common  tradition  as  its  source ;  and  what  more  reasonable 
than  the  statement  of  the  text,  the  designation  by  Jeliovah  of 
a  sacred  day  to  be  observ^cd  by  man  f^m  the  beginning  of 
the  world  ?  The  exceptions  to  this  seven-days  period  in  the 
history  of  nations  are  just  enough  to  prove  the  rule,  for  the 
usage  prevailed  among  those  nations  that  were  connected 
most  nearly  by  language  and  emigration  wath  that  part  of 
Asia  which  was  the  cradle  of  the  human  family. 

Again,  the  Fourth  Commandment  treats  of  the  Sabbath 
as  an  institution  already  known.  *'  Remember  the  Sabbath 
day  to  keep  it  holy."  This  is  not  merely  an  emphasis  for 
the  future.  It  does  not  mean  simply — keep  in  mind  hereafter 
this  day  with  a  view  to  its  sacred  observance ;  the  word  re- 
member recalls  the  past.  An  institution  entirely  new  Avould 
have  required  a  different  j)hraseology.  For  instance,  it  would 
have  been  enjoined  in  some  such  language  as  this  :  Thou  shalt 
keep  a  holy  rest  every  seventh  day.  But  the  Sabbath  day 
was  recalled  as  an  institution  known  to  their  fathers,  and  for- 
merly to  themselves,  to  be  "  remembered  "  as  something  that 
ought  to  be  known,  but  had  been  allowed  to  slip  out  of  mind. 
"We  find  mention  of  this  day  in  the  history  of  the  Israelites  in 
the  wilderness  before  the  giving  of  the  law  at  Sinai.  When 
the  manna  appeared,  it  is  recorded  that "  on  the  sixth  day  they 
gathered  twice  as  much  bread,  two  omers  for  one  man,  and 
all  the  rulers  of  the  con2:re2ration  came  and  told  Moses."  And 
he  said  unto  them,  "  This  is  that  which  the  Lord  hath  said, 
To-morrow  is  the  rest  of  the  holy  Sabbath  unto  the  Lord  ;" 
and  on  the  following  morning  Moses  said,  "  To-day  is  a  Sab- 
bath unto  the  Lord ;  to-day  ye  shall  not  find  it  in  the  field. 
Six  days  ye  shall  gather  it ;  but  on  the  seventh  day,  which  is 
the  Sabbath,  in  it  there  shall  be  none."  *      From  this  it  is 

*  Exodas  xvi.  22,  23,  25,  2(5. 


118  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

evident  that  the  institution  of  the  Sabbath  had  long  been 
known,  although  its  observance  may  have  joretty  much  died 
out  among  the  children  of  Israel  during  their  sojourn  in  Egypt. 
Kow,  it  was  revived  jpith  the  memory  of  the  patriarchal  times 
and  the  history  of  creation,  and  reinforced  by  specific  com- 
mand as  an  institution  to  be  remembered.     Furthermore,  the 
primary  reason  for  keeping  holy  the  Sabbath  does  not  at  all 
pertain  to  the  Jewish  commonwealth,  but  belongs  to  the  his- 
tory of  Humanity.     It  existed  from  the  day  of  the  first  Man, 
and  is  perpetual  in  its  nature. and  obHgation.     "In  six  days 
the  Lord  made  heaven  and  earth,  and  the  seas,  and  all  that  in 
them  is,  and  rested  the  seventh  day;   wherefore  the  Lord 
blessed  the  Sabbath  day,  and  hallowed  it."     This  was  the 
primitive   reason — it   is   still   a  prominent    reason.       Other 
reasons  supplementary  to  this  have  from  time  to  time  been 
given  for  the  observance  of  this  day;  for  instance,  the  deliver- 
ance of  the  children  of  Israel  from  their  bondage  in  Egypt ; 
and  since  the  Christian  era,  the  resurrection  of  Christ ;  for  the 
resurrection  of  Christ  includes  within  itself,  as  antityj^e,  both 
of  the  preceding  grounds  for  the  observance  of  this  day  ;  that 
resurrection  symbolizes  our  deliverance  from  bondage,  and 
our  new  creation  into  a  higher  spiritual  life  ;  and  so  grandly 
expressive  is  this  symbol,  that  the  day  of  the  week  has  been 
changed  to  correspond  with  it.     But  the  period  of  time  to  be 
observed  as  a  Sabbath  is  altogether  secondary ;  whether  it  be 
the  seventh  day  or  the  first  day  is  of  minor  importance.     The 
essential  point  is  the  setting  apart  for  sacred  observances  of  a 
seventh  portion  of  time ;  and  the  prime  reason  is  as  old  as 
Man,  and  universal  as  Mankind.     The  day  is  primarily  one  of 
rest.     It  is  agreed  by  scholars  that  the  word  "  Sabbath  "  sig- 
nifies etymologically  "  rest,"  and  hence  the  day  of  rest,  and 
by  analogy  rest  from  that  which  had  commonly  occupied  the 
hands,  the  mind,  the  heart ;  and  in  harmony  with  this  the 


THE  REASON  OP  THE  SABBATH  PERPETUAL.  110 

Fourth  Commandment  requires  rest  from  the  common  labor 
of  life.  Now,  whether  we  regard  the  Fourth  Commandment 
in  form  as  binding  upon  us  as  to  its  details  or  no,  it  matters 
not  as  to  the  essential  spirit  and  obligation  of  this  j^rimeval 
institution  ;  for  rest  is  not  accomplished  simply  by  refraining 
from  outward  physical  toil.  The  idea  of  rest  pertains  to  the 
S2:)irit ;  and  the  Sabbath  does  not  become  a  real,  substantial, 
refreshing  rest,  unless  the  mind  rests  from  care — unless  the 
spirit  is  released  from  trouble,  anxiety,  burdens,  and  toils. 
How  welcome  an  institution  that  contemplates  such  an  end ! 
how  beneficent  in  its  adajDtation  to  man  !  What  a  gracious 
invitation  to  every  weary,  burdened  human  spirit  to  enter 
upon  a  stated  weekly  period  of  rest !  Hence  it  is  also  a  day 
of  rejoicmg.  A  reason  given  for  its  observance  at  first  is  a 
joyous  one — the  fact  of  creation,  the  blessings  of  existence. 
Who  has  not  known  at  times — esj^ecially  when  e!k:periencing 
the  full  tide  of  health,  in  the  bright  rich  calm  of  a  summer 
day — the  joy  of  simple  existence  ?  and  since  this  is  the  foun- 
dation that  underlies  all  faculty  and  possibility  of  enjoyment,  it 
is  well  that  we  should  be  periodically  reminded  of  our  obliga- 
tion to  God  for  life.  The  contemplation  of  the  glorious  works 
of  the  Creator  is  fitted  to  awaken  joy.  Like  the  Psalmist,  we 
should  consider  the  heavens,  the  work  of  God's  fingers.  We 
should  accustom  ourselves  to  the  contemplation  of  the  Crea- 
tor in  the  physical  universe,  as  well  as  in  the  constitution  of 
our  own  bodies  and  minds ;  and  such  a  contemplation  will 
ever  be  to  the  thoughtful  and  devout  mind  an  occasion  of  re- 
joicing. As  the  week  draws  to  a  close,  the  laboring  man 
begins  to  anticipate  the  Sabbath,  and  counts  the  hours  that 
shall  bring  to  him  this  welcome  day  of  rest.  Whafc^a  mere 
drudge  and  slave  would  Man  become  if  he  had  no  such  oppor- 
tunity !  It  is  impossible  that  the  opportunity  should  exist  ex- 
cept by  some  common  understanding,  some  mutual  arrange- 


120  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

ment  pervading  society ;  and  this  is  provided  for  by  Divine 
appointment  at  the  first — that  Man  should  have  release  from 
toil  and  enter  into  rest. 

All  right  spiritual  emotions  and  exercises  have  in  them  far 
more  of  joy  than  of  constraint.  To  a  mind  rightly  constituted, 
there  is  nothing  burdensome  in  a  spiritual  religion.  The  true 
religious  fervor  is  always  joyous,  and  hence  under  whatever 
aspect  we  regard  it,  the  Sabbath,  as  originally  constituted 
and  designed  of  God,  is  a  day  of  welcome  and  blessing  to 
Mankind.  In  every  faculty  and  aptitude  of  his  being  we 
read  that  "  the  Sabbath  was  made  for  Man." 

Human  physiology  and  the  laws  of  animal  life  teach  us 
the  beneficence  of  such  a  day.  Some  look  upon  the  Fourth 
Commandment  as  restrictive  and  severe,  but  it  is  no  more  so 
than  a  good  sanitary  law  or  the  prescription  of  a  physicians 
If,  for  example,  your  physician  should  say  to  you,  "  Your 
constant  toil  is  wearing  upon  you;  your  unremitting  atten- 
tion to  business  is  afiecting  your  brain ;  you  must  have  rest ; 
you  must  allow  yourself  so  many  hours  every  day  for  sleep ; 
every  now  and  then  you  must  take  a  day  or  a  week  of  relaxa- 
tion ;  indeed,  it  may  be  wise  for  you  to  break  off  altogether 
for  months  of  rest ;  otherwise,  you  will  break  down  your 
nervous  system  ;  you  will  bring  on  softening  of  the  brain,  or 
paralysis  and  death;" — if  a  physician  should  lay  such  in- 
junctions upon  you,  would  you  deem  these  arbitrary  and  se- 
vere ?  Nay,  would  not  the  timely  caution,  intended  to  reg- 
ulate and  save  your  life,  be  most  beneficent  for  you  ?  Now, 
the  Sabbath  anticipates  these  dangers  and  necessities  for 
every  Man,  provides  for  him  betimes  the  necessary  and  season- 
able repose.  It  is  emphatically  in  the  interest  of  the  working- 
man,  and  even  also  of  the  brute  creation.  "  Man  needs  not 
only  the  periodic  rest  of  sleep  at  short  intervals,  but  longer 
rest  at  longer  intervals  ;  and,  what  is  as  important  to  health 


THE  SABBATH  A  SANITARY  PROVISIOK         121 

as  sleep  itself,  he  needs  change  of  mood."  *  Nothing  so  preys 
upon  the  vital  powers  as  a  continuous  strain  of  the  faculties 
in  one  direction — to  be  forevermore  upon  the  same  thing,  to 
be  constantly  working  at  the  same  point.  The  mind  itseli 
needs  diversion  as  much  as  the  body  needs  rest.  The  eco- 
nomic welfare  of  society  is  promoted  by  the  Sabbath.  Lord 
Macaulay  finely  said,  "  We,  in  England,  are  not  poorer,  but 
richer,  because  we  have,  through  many  ages,  rested  from  our 
labor  one  day  in  seven.  The  day  is  not  lost.  While  industry 
is  suspended,  while  the  plow  lies  in  the  furrow,  while  the 
exchange  is  silent,  while  no  smoke  ascends  from  the  factory,  a 
process  is  going  on  quite  as  important  to  the  wealth  of  nations 
as  any  process  which  is  performed  on  more  busy  days.  Man, 
the  machme  of  machines,  the  machine  compared  with  which 
all  the  contrivances  of  the  Watts  and  Arkwrights  are  worth- 
less, is  repairing  and  winding  up  so  that  he  returns  to  his 
labors  on  the  Monday  with  clearer  intellect,  w^ith  livelier 
spirits,  with  renewed  corporeal  vigor !  "  f  The  statistics  of 
husbandry,  of  trade,  of  commerce,  of  every  branch  of  business, 
will  show  that  the  profits  are  not  diminished,  but  rather  en- 
hanced, by  a  due  observance  of  this  seventh  period  of  rest. 

And  this  beneficent  dcsiQ-n  of  the  Sabbath  is  all  the  more 
marked,  that  rest  from  labor  is  ojjoined  upon  moral  grounds 
and  fqr  religious  ends.  The  bulk  of  Mankind  require  a  law 
to  lead  them  to  do  what  is  wisest '  and  best  for  themselves ; 
for  in  such  matters  most  men  are  in  a  condition  correspond- 
ing to  childhood ;  and  just  as — to  recur  to  our  former 
illustration — sanitary  regulations  must  be  enforced  to  teach 
the  poor  cleanliness,  and  preserve  them  from  the  visitation  of 
epidemics,   so   for    the   most    of   Mankind    this    institution, 


*  See  the  fine  article  on  the  Sabbath  in  Dr.  W.  L.  Alexander's  edition  of  Kitto's 
Cyclopaedia. 
t  Speech  on  the  Ten  Hours'  Bill, 

6 


122  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND, IN  GEOLOGY. 

designed  for  their  highest  welfare  as  physical  beings,  and 
for  their  best  mental  and  spiritual  development,  must  be 
enjoined  by  authority  in  order  that  it  may  be  duly  observed. 
And  the  discipline  of  the  soul  through  a  government  by  law 
is  of  great  importance  in  forming  a  strong  and  high-toned 
character.  Every  man  who  has  known  an  inward  conflict 
with  tem2:>tation,  the  struggling  of  his  soul  against  evil,  has 
valued  the  strength  of  law,  girding  him  about  to  sustain  him ; 
and  if  in  the  spirit  of  obedience  to  divine  authority  he  has 
come  out  of  such  a  struggle  successfully,  he  is  the  stronger 
and  healthier  by  reason  of  the  discipline  of  law.  Spiritual 
culture  also  thrives  best  by  the  help  of  special  times  of 
meditation  and  devotion, — as  for  instance  the  favoring 
hour  of  even-tide.  The  stated  recurrence  of  such  a  season, 
the  suspension  of  labor  with  reference  to  it,  favors  the 
improvement  of  the  mind  in  its  highest  spiritual  interests. 

Such  were  the  original  grounds  of  the  institution  of  the 
Sabbath  ;  such  are  the  reasons  established  in  the  very  consti- 
tution of  Man  and  of  society  for  its  proper  observance. 
From  all  which  we  infer  that  the  sacred  keeping  of  the 
Sahbath  is  due  to  the  Dignity  of  Man^  as  a  creature  of  intel- 
lectual and  moral  faculties.  The  institution  of  the  Sabbath 
dates  from  the  beginning  of  rational  existence  upon  the  globe. 
Until  Man  appeared,  there  was  no  call  for  such  a  day,  no  fac- 
ulty in  any  creature  that  could  comprehend  its  meaning,  no 
spirit  upon  the  face  of  the  earth  that  could  fulfill  its  design ; 
all  things  heretofore  had  moved  under  the  ordinance  ofjohysi- 
cal  laws  ;  but  now,  having  created  Man  in  his  own  image,  God, 
as  it  were,  compliments  his  new  creature  by  lifting  him  above 
the  plane  of  mere  physical  law — although  in  his  lower  animal 
nrtture  he  is  still  subservient  to  this — and  addressino-  him  as  a 
being  capable  of  spiritual  communion  with  Himself,  and  des- 
tined to  fmd  his  highest  enjoyment  and  fulfill  the  highest 


THE  SABBATH  FOR  SPIRITUAL  LIFE.  123 

plane  of  his  being  in  fellowshii)  with  his  Creator.  For  this 
purpose  God  set  apart  a  day  upon  which  He  invites  Man  to 
special  communion  with  Him,  to  the  recognition  of  his  spirit- 
ual dignity  as  a  child  of  God.  The  Sabbath,  as  God  designed 
it,  so  far  from  degrading  him  or  imposing  upon  him  a  severe 
legal  obhgation,  releases  him  from  the  sphere  of  mere  animal 
life  in  the  senses  and  the  control  of  physical  laws,  and  ele- 
vates him  to  the  proud  consciousness  of  his  high  origin  and 
his  immortal  destiny.  Man  therefore  best  consults  the  dig- 
nity of  his  own  nature  by  observing  such  a  day  in  the  spirit 
and  according  to  the  intent  of  his  Creator. 

I  shall  not  here  enter  upon  the  question  of  civil  legislation 
concerning  the  observance  of  the  Sabbath.  It  may  be  stated, 
as  a  general  rule,  that  Ave  are  not  called  upon  to  enforce  divine 
laws  as  such  by  civil  penalties,  although  the  civil  law  against 
murder,  and  other  criminal  legislation,  has  a  diA-ine  sanction. 
What  I  do  insist  upon  is,  that  the  divine  law  of  the  Sabbath, 
properly  construed,  is  not  irksome  nor  humiliating,  nor  a  re- 
striction of  just  hberty,  but  tends  to  enfranchise  and  ennoble 
the  soul. 

It  should  therefore  be  freely,  voluntarily  observed  by  men, 
not  as  an  ordinance  of  human  society,  but  as  a  gracious  ap- 
pointment of  the  benevolent  Creator.  The  Sabbath  calls  for 
the  devout  and  grateful  recognition  of  God  as  the  Creator  of  all 
things,  and  especially  as  the  Father  of  our  spirits.  Nothing 
is  more  brutish  in  Man  than  to  live  with  no  acknowledg- 
ment of  God.  Brutes  never  lift  themselves  above  their  in- 
stincts ;  and  if  Man  refuses  to  lift  his  soul  to  fellowship  with 
his  Creator  as  a  spiritual  being,  what  better  is  he,  in  this  re- 
gard, than  the  brute  beneath  him  ?  It  is  worse  than  brutish 
to  live  without  gratitude.  One  can  teach  a  dumb  animal  to 
recognize  favors,  to  love  and  follow  his  master  ;  and  for  Man, 
the  creature  of  intelligence,  the  creature  of  affection,  the 


124:  MAN:    IN    GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

creature  of  moral  endowments,  to  feel  no  gratitude  toward 
Him  who  has  bestowed  upon  him  all  these  facnlties  and  ca- 
pacities, and  who  so  enriches  and  adorns  his  life,  is  to  place 
himself  below  the  level  of  the  brute.  Turning,  therefore,  from 
the  animal,  the  sensuous,  the  physical,  let  us  devoutly,  thank- 
fully lift  ourselves  into  the  sphere  of  spiritual  affections, 
powers,  aims,  and  hopes,  by  the  worthy  recognition  and  ob- 
servance of  the  Sabbath  Day. 


LECTURE    YII. 

Gen.  i.  27.  So  God  created  man  in  his  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
he  him ;  male  and  female  created  he  them. 

28.  And  God  blessed  them,  and  God  said  unto  them,  Be  fruitful,  and  multiply,  and 
replenish  the  earth,  and  subdue  it :  and  have  dominion  over  the  fish  of  the  sea,  and 
over  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  over  every  living  thing  that  moveth  upon  the  earth. 

ii.  18.  And  tlie  Lord  God  said.  It  is  not  good  that  the  man  should  be  alone  ;  I  -will 
make  him  a  help-meet  for  him. 

"We  have  seen  abundantly,  in  former  lectures,  how  the 
earth  was  designed  to  be  the  abode  of  3Ian^  and  shaped  to 
that  end.  Glaciers,  icebergs,  floods,  and  fires  had  wrought 
their  work  upon  the  face  of  the  globe;  continents  had  risen 
or  fallen  with  the  changes  of  the  seas,  and  other  physical 
phenomena  of  which  Geology  finds  the  record  had  taken 
place  upon  the  grandest  scale ;  but  this  narrative,  regarding 
these  as  of  no  account  with  reference  to  its  great  end,  confines 
itself  to  Man  and  his  development,  m  all  his  capacities  and 
powers  as  a  spiritual,  intellectual,  and  social  being.  We  have 
seen  that  he  was  introduced  upon  the  stage  of  existence  as  a 
spiritual  being,  the  express  image  of  God,  bearing  His  likeness 
in  capacity,  and  intended  to  bear  His  likeness  in  character. 
His  intellectual  nature  is  at  once  exhibited  and  honored  in  his 
assigned  dominion  over  the  world,  and  in  the  faculty  of  speech. 
This  last  is  brought  into  view  in  the  close  of  the  second  chap- 
ter. It  is  perhaps  idle  to  inquire  whether  Language  was  an 
immediate  gift  of  God,  or  was  originated  by  Man  through  the 
use  of  the  ficulties  that  God  had  prepared  for  this  end.  We 
are  told  that  "  out  of  the  m-ound  the  Lord  God  formed  evcrv 
beast  of  the  field,  and  every  fowl  of  the  air,  and  brought  them 


126  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

unto  Adam  to  see  what  he  would  call  them."  Every  faculty 
of  Man  requires  something  objective  to  bring  it  into  play. 
As  Hght  and  the  eye,  the  atmosphere  and  the  ear,  stand 
related  to  each  other,  so  throughout  the  whole  range  of  phys- 
ical organization  Ave  find  traces  of  adaptation  to  the  faculties 
of  Man.  The  adaptation  of  Man's  organs  to  language  might 
have  remained  forever  inoperative  had  not  objects  been  pre- 
sented to  him  which  called  for  such  discrimination  as  could 
be  given  only  by  words.  So  all  living  creatures  were  brought 
before  Man  to  be  named ;  and  whatsoever  Adam  called  every 
living  creature,  that  was  the  name  thereof;  and  this  discrimi- 
nation among  the  cattle,  and  the  fowl  of  the  air,  and  the  beasts 
of  the  field,  expressed  in  words,  was  the  rudimental  beginning 
of  language.  This  statement  corresj^onds  very  well  with  the 
philosophy  of  language  established  by  modern  philology. 
When  we  consider  how  much  is  involved  in  human  lan2:uaQ:e, 
in  its  grammatical  structure,  in  its  application  to  the  various 
uses  of  thought  and  of  life,  we  find  in  this  early  use  of  lan- 
guage, a  strong  testimony  to  the  intellectual  nature  of  Man. 

We  have  seen  also,  in  the  last  lecture,  that  the  religious 
wants  of  Man  were  provided  for  at  the  beginning  by  the 
institution  of  the  Sabbath ;  that  as  a  creature  having  moral 
needs  and  moral  aspirations,  he  required  some  set  time  for 
intercourse  with  his  Maker  and  spiritual  meditation  ;  and  this 
day,  set  apart  at  the  beginning  for  such  uses,  is  a  grand  index 
of  the  religious  nature  of  Man. 

We  come  at  length  to  the  provision  for  Man's  emotional 
and  social  nature.  As  his  spiritual  nature  was  recognized 
and  developed  by  the  presentation  of  God  to  his  mind  as  an 
object  of  religious  contemplation,  and  by  the  institution  of  the 
Sabbath  for  his  relio-ious  culture  :  as  the  invention  of  lanG-uaofe 
was  called  out  by  the  presentation  of  objects  to  be  named, 
so  now  his  afiections  are  to  be  brought  into  exercise  by  an 


THE  ORIGIN  OF  LANGUAGE.  127 

object  wortliy  of  tlicni.  "When  all  was  made  ready,  "  God 
created  Man  in  His  own  image,  in  the  image  of  God  created 
He  him,  male  and  female  created  lie  thera."  Thus  far  in  the 
wide  range  of  creation  there  had  been  nothing  corresponding 
to  the  nature  of  Man  himself.  He  could  apply  to  the  animal 
creation  the  terms  of  intelligent  speech,  but  could  receive 
from  them  no  intelligent  response.  By  degrees  such  animals 
as  were  domesticated  would  learn  to  respond  to  the  names 
that  Man  applied  to  them ;  but  beyond  this  they  could  have 
no  comprehension  of  language.  Of  language  as  the  vehicle  of 
thought,  of  language  as  the  means  of  intercommunication  be- 
tween minds,  of  language  as  the  correspondence  of  spiritual 
natures,  they  could  have  no  conception  and  no  use,  and  so 
there  was  not  in  all  the  wide  creation  a  creature  havino: 
affinities  of  soul  with  Man.  In  the  impressive  words  of 
the  text,  "  for  Adam  there  was  not  found  a  help-meet  for  him."  * 
This  phrase  is  significant ;  a  helper  corresponding  to  him,  his 
counterpart — not  his  double,  not  a  mere  repetition  of  himself, 
but  the  complement  of  his  own  being,  corresponding  with 
himself  in  all  essential  particulars,  but  at  the  same  time  sup- 
plying certain  elements  for  social  life  and  spiritual  intercourse 
in  which  he  himself  was  lacking. 

By  this  double  yet  single  creation,  this  duality  in  unity,  as 
it  has  been  styled,  God  set  apart  Man  from  all  other  crea- 
tures in  the  high  and  sacred  institution  of  the  family.  There 
are  sexes  in  animals  and  in  some  species  of  plants ;  a  law  of 
polarity  pervades  even  in  organic  nature  ;  but  of  no  animal  or 
plant  are  we  told  that  God  created  but  a  single  pair,  and  sol- 
emnly consecrated  these  to  each  other  with  His  own  command 
and  blessing ;  and  nowhere  in  the  animal  or  vegetable  king- 
dom do  we  find  a  uniform  distribution  into  families ;  and 
when  there  is  an  approximation  to  this,  it  is  purely  instinct- 

*  Gonesis  ii.  22. 


128  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

ive,  without  any  rational  or  moral  affection.     But  in  the  hu 
man  species  God  created  but  a  single  pair  ;  created  the  tico 
that  they  might  voluntarily  become  one  ; — one,  not  by  a  mere 
law  of  Nature,  but  one  by  a  rational  and  moral  choice  in  a 
miion,  not  of  chance,  of  convenience,  or  of  impulse,  but  a  union 
of  deliberate  volition  and  of  sacred  affection,  and  therefore  in- 
dissoluble.    Such  was  the  nature  of  this  union  from  the  be- 
ginning.    In  a  sense  one  might  say  Adam  and  Eve  had  no 
choice ;  yet  was  the  union  voluntary.     Each  saw  in  the  other 
perfection,   and  this   was   the   basis   of  their  moral   imion. 
Adam  had  tasted  solitude;  he  had  given  a  name  to  every  liv- 
ing creature ;  yet  not  one  of  them  all  had  answered  by  intel- 
gent  recognition ;  there  was  not  found  a  help-meet  for  him. 
But  when  the  Lord  God  brought  to  him  the  woman,  his 
heart  at  once  said,  "  She  is  mine,  bone  of  my  bones,  and  flesh 
of  my  flesh  ;"  he  gave  her  a  name  derived  from  himself;  and 
as  the  great  prophet  of  his  race,  declared  that  "  man  should 
leave  even  father  and  mother,  and  cleave  to  his  wife."     The 
second  Adam  interprets  this  as  the  command  of  God,  sacred 
from  the  beginning.     And  not  only  was  the  institution    of 
marriage  then  ordained  as  sacred  and  indissoluble,  but  the 
reason  assigned  for  this  is  of  the  highest  moral  nature, — that 
the  image  of  God  might  be  perpetuated  in  the  world,  the 
spiritual   likeness  following  the  natural  from  generation  to 
generation.     This  is  the  argument  of  Malachi  for  the  inviola- 
bility of  marriage.     Did  not  God  at  the  beginning  make  but 
one  wife  for  Man  ?     Yet  had  he  the  residue,  the  fullness,  the 
excellency  of  the  spirit.     He  might  have  multiplied  the  human 
species  without  number  by  separate  acts  of  creation  ;  yet  He 
made  but  one  man  and  one  woman.     And  wherefore,  asks 
the  prophet,  did  he  make  but  one?     "  That  he  might  seek  a 
godly  seed,"  *  — that  the  family  might  become  the  educator 

*  Malacki  ii.  15.  • 


MARRIAGE  A  PRIMEVAL  INSTITUTION.  129 

of  the  race  in  the  knowleclge  and  the  love  of  God  ;  that  the 
father  who  should  transmit  to  his  son  his  own  physical  like- 
ness, might  also  imj^ress  upon  him  the  hkeness  of  God ;  that 
thus  holiness  might  be  hereditary  and  perpetual ;  that  the 
life  of  God,  beginning  in  that  mysterious  and  sacred  union  in 
Eden,  might  flow  on  in  channels  of  love  and  purity  till  the 
end  of  time.  Alas,  that  the  fountain  became  corrupt,  and  has 
sent  forth  streams  of  bitterness  and  death  !  • 

God  put  immediate  honor  upon  the  relation  He  had  so  con- 
stituted. Beneath  the  feet  of  Man  Avere  countless  generations 
of  creatures  buried  in  the  rocks  and  soils  of  the  Preadamic  earth. 
These  monster  creations  had  passed  away ;  Man  could  not 
have  lived  in  their  period ;  Man  does  not  exist  under  their 
laws.  They  paved  the  ascent  to  his  majestic  throne.  And 
now,  mated  wdth  his  own  flesh,  male  and  female  created  in 
the  image  of  God,  Man  is  inaugurated  king  over  this  earth 
that  entombs  all  former  creations,  and  over  all  its  living 
things.  A  new  era  opens  in  the  history  of  creation  ;  an  era 
that,  beginning  in  the  domestic  constitution  as  its  germ,  shall 
evolve  into  the  momentous  history  of  the  race  in  society,  in 
the  state,  and  in  the  kingdom  of  God. 

Two  flicts  of  perpetual  significance  were  established  by  the 
creation  of  ^yoman, — the  flict  of  sex,  and  the  fact  of  the 
interde2:)endence  of  the  sexes.  One  may  conceive  it  possible 
for  the  Creator  to  have  multiplied  the  race  of  jMan  by 
successive  acts  of  creation  ;  to  have  peopled  the  earth  by 
some  direct  exercise  of  creative  power  with  multiples  of  men 
simply ;  but  He  chose  to  create  Woman  as  the  medium  for 
the  increase  of  the  race ;  and  thus  the  distinction  of  Sex  is 
permanently  established  in  the  race  itself.  And  with  this 
distinction  comes  in  the  condition  and  the  feeling  of  interde- 
pendence,— neither  sex  complete  without  the  other,  neither 

sex  possible  to  be  continued  without  the  other,  ncitlier  sex 

6* 


130  MAN:  m  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

able  to  represent  the  other,  neitlicr  sex  able  to  dispense  with 
the  other.  No  modification  of  society  can  ever  displace 
these  two  fundamental  facts — the  sexes  and  their  intercle- 
2-)endence — and  no  society  can  endure  which  disregards  or 
attempts  to  modify  facts  thus  fundamental  in  the  existence 
of  the  race  itself. 

The  status  of  Woman  hinges  npon  this  vital  fact  of  sex. 
Yet  "the  tendency  of  legislation  in  all  modern  states  is  to 
reduce  marria2:e  to  an  instrument  for  the  leo-itimization  of 
children  simply,  leaving  all  the  relations  of  husband  and 
wife  which  are  not  necessary  to  this  end  to  be  regulated  by 
individual  will.  ...  In  all  European  countries  there  is  every 
day  a  stronger  and  stronger  movement  toward  the  liberation 
of  Woman  from  all  legal  incidents  of  matrimony  which  are 
not  necessary  to  prove  the  paternity  of  her  children  and 
provide  for  their  maintenance."  *  But  why  seek  to  legitimize 
children  ?  Why  not  let  them  belong  to  the  state,  as  in  Plato's 
Kepublic  ?  Can  they  be  cared  for  without  love — that 
delicate,  reciprocal  love  of  the  parents  which  results  from 
their  mutual  fitness  and  dependence,  and  attracts  them  both 
to  their  oflfspring  ?  To  reduce  marriage  to  a  compact  of 
legitimacy  is  to  degrade  Woman  to  a  commercial  crea- 
ture, and  rob  her  of  that  divine  beauty  which  her  sex  has 
stamped  upon  her.  No  jncture  of  a  Man  ever  affects  us  as 
does  the  Madonna,  crowned  Avith  the  dignity  and  glory  of 
Womanhood.  To  regard  husband  and  wife  as  separate 
units  held  together  by  an  artificial  contract  for  purposes  of 
legitimacy,  is  to  destroy  the  true  unit  of  Society,  which  is  the 
Family.  This  is  the  fatal  fallacy  in  Mr.  Mill's  essay,f  that  he 
overlooks  those  physiological  diversities  that  both  separate 
the  sexes  and  provide  for  their  union  in  a  true  equalit3^ 

♦  The  North  American  Review  for  Jul}',  ISC?.       t  "  The  Subjection  of  Woman." 


SEX  FUNDAMENTAL  IN  HUMAN  SOCIETY.        131 

*'  The  foundation  of  this  new  constitution  was  hiicl,"  saya 
Harris,  "in  the  divinely  instituted  union  of  husband  and 
wife.  '  Have  ye  not  read  that  He  wlio  made  them  at  the  be- 
ginnuig  made  th.em  a  male  and  a  female  [as  intending  to  pre- 
vent both  polygamy  and  divorce],  and  said  [as  the  formal 
authentification  of  the  great  law  of  marriage  already  inserted, 
in  the  constitution  of  human  nature],  for  this  cause  [or,  on 
account  of  entering  into  the  married  state]  shall  a  man  leave 
his  father  and  mother  [the  nearest  relation  he  had  previously 
sustained],  and  cleave  to  his  wife,  and  they  twain  shall  be  one 
flesh  ;  wherefore  they  are  no  more  twain,  but  one  flesh.'  A 
union  this  so  intimate,  that  every  other  is  to  yield  to  it ;  so 
sacred,  that  the  Divine  Proclamation  concerning  it  is,  '  What 
God  hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put  asunder ;'  so  indis- 
soluble, that  nothing  is  to  separate  it  but  that  which  separates 
the  soul  from  the  body ;  so  spiritual  in  its  ultimate  relation 
and  aims,  as  to  find  its  antitype  only  in  that  divine  union 
which,  as  the  fruit  of  redemption,  is  to  survive  every  other, 
and  to  obtain  its  consummation  in  heaven." 

The  apostolic  precept  is,  "  Husbands,  love  your  wives,  even 
as  Christ  also  loved  the  church  ;"  *  and  the  glorious  church 
of  the  redeemed  in  heaven  is  "  the  Bride,  the  Lamb's  wife."  f 

The  Word  of  God  always  puts  honor  upon  the  institution 
of  the  Family.  Both  the  moral  and  the  civil  code  given  to 
the  Israelites  in  the  wilderness  guarded  this  sacred  institution. 
Under  the  peculiar  constitution  of  the  Jewish  nation,  as  a 
people  separated  fro-m  other  nations,  their  origin,  their  relig- 
ion, and  their  institutions,  the  interests  of  property,  inher- 
itance in  a  tribe,  the  distinction  of  nationality,  pride  of  ances- 
try, and  the  hope  of  an  illustrious  posterity,  combined  to  give 
honor  and  sacredness  to  the  Family. 

*  Ephesians  v.  25.  t  Revelation  xxl.  9. 


132  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

This  relation,  thus  constituted  by  the  act  of  God,  rests 
clearly  upon  the  Jltness  of  things.  It  was  not  the  mere  arbi- 
trary will  of  God  that  placed  the  marriage  union  of  one  pair 
at  the  foundation  of  human  society,  making  this  the  channel 
of  both  physical  and  spiritual  life  to  the  race,  but  it  was  the 
wisdom  and  the  love  of  God  consulting  in  this,  as  in  all  the 
ordinances  of  creation,  the  perfect  fitness  of  things  and  the 
best  good  of  creatures. 

Contemplating  the  Family  as  thus  constituted,  in  its  adapta- 
tions for  happiness,  the  relation  originates  in  love  ;  a  love 
whose  strength  and  fervor  lie  in  its  individuality;  whose 
very  essence  and  beauty  are  that  however  multiplied  in  its 
examples,  it  is  still  in  every  instance  unique  and  exclusive; 
that  however  intense  and  amp)le,  its  volume  can  flov/  in  but 
one  channel  between  two  responsive  hearts ;  a  love  which, 
like  the  subtile  fluid  of  magnetism,  may  be  conducted  across 
the  globe,  over  the  prairies  and  the  mountains-,  through  the 
forests  and  the  seas,  and  yet  which  finds  its  home  and  emits 
its  spark  only  where  the  two  poles  of  its  being  are  brought 
together. 

In  this  Family  so  constituted  and  so  sustained,  a  two-fold 
want  of  the  soul  is  met  through  Society  in  Seclusion.  It  is 
not  good  that  the  Man  should  be  alone ;  and  yet  perpetual 
companionship  with  the  busy  world  would  merge  his  person- 
ality in  the  vast  and  complicated  machinery  of  social  life. 
To  be  himself,  to  Jieep  the  heart  in  play,  to  strengthen  and 
develop  the  noble  powers  and  sentiments  of  his  soul,  to  keep 
the  sj^iritual  and  immortal  in  a  fine  unison  with  the  physical 
and  temporal,  Man  must  be,  and  yet  must  7iot  he^  alone. 

There  is  no  perfect  happiness  for  an  intelligent  being  where 
love  is  w^anting.  The  pleasures  of  sense  will  not  suflice  the 
soul.  These  impart  a  real  happiness  only  when  the  mind  has 
etherealized  from  the  grosser  materials  some  sj^iritual  essence, 


THE  FAMILY  FOUNDED  IN  LOVE.  133 

which  serves  as  a  bond  or  medium  of  intelligent  and  sympa- 
thetic intercourse  with  some  other  mind.  Knowledge  alone 
will  not  meet  the  soul's  capacities  and  needs.  The  lore  of  ages 
may  be  poured  into  the  mind  only  to  congeal  there  like  the 
glaciers  of  the  Alps,  whose  crevasses  and  pinnacles  reflect  an 
awful  lustre  of  emerald,  but  wear  no  living  green.  Only 
.when  the  warmth  of  Love  dissolves  the  icy  intellect,  and  its 
treasures  percolate  through  the  sensibilities  and  affections  of 
the  soul,  do  the  accumulations  of  knowledge  diffuse  (i  living 
freshness  and  joy.  But  to  multitudes  the  heights  of  knowl- 
edge are  inaccessible.  They  have  no  skill  to  climb,  no  time 
to  make  the  effort,  nor  can  they  afford  the  services  of  a  guide. 
It  is  theirs  to  till  the  valleys,  to  work  the  mines,  to  fell  the 
forests,  to  dredge  the  marshes,  to  bridge  the  rivers,  to  grap- 
ple hand  to  hand  with  the  hard,  rough  world,  to  subdue  nature 
VN'hile  others  enjoy  it,  to  work  at  handicrafts  while  others 
reason  of  philosophy  and  discourse  of  art.  And  where  shall 
these,  the  multitude  of  Mankind,  find  happiness,  if  knowledge, 
the  pursuit  of  learning  and  science,  be  its  only  or  principal 
medium  ?  Sensual  pleasure  will  but  debase  them  and  bring 
out  more  strongly  the  coarser  features  of  their  character. 
Sensual  pleasure  will  carry  them  downward  toward  the  level 
of  mere  brute  machines.  Where,  then,  shall  these,  the  multi- 
tude of  mankind,  consigned  to  toil,  cut  off  from  the  resources 
of  knowledge,  imbruted  by  sensual  pleasure,  where  shall  they 
find  true  happiness  ?  Affection  gives  the  answer.  The  cir- 
cle of  home  opens  to  receive  them,  then  closes  about  each  in 
his  proper  sphere  its  golden  bands  of  love.  Home,  that  brief- 
est word  of  our  good  old  Saxon  tongue — there  lies  in  it  the 
wealth  of  all  language,  of  all  affection,  of  all  virtuous  joy,  of 
all  pure  memories,  of  all  innocent  hopes  ;  the  prattle  of  the 
infant,  the  gleeful  laugh  of  childhood,  the  song  of  the  maiden, 
the  cheerful  labor,  the  merry  pastime,  the  sweet  repose  of 


134  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

evening  when  toil  is  ended,  the  united  meal,  the  household 
stories,  music,  and  diversions,  the  various  ages,  interests,  and 
plans  revolving  about  one  centre,  and  that  centre  love.  Whose 
eye  does  not  moisten  with  unbidden  tears  at  the  thought  of 
Home  ?  These  four  letters  are  the  chord  of  human  happiness 
for  every  gamut ;  whenever  the  scale  of  life  begins,  these  let- 
ters are  its  perfect  consonance. 

"  God  setteth  the  solitary  in  families."  This  was  His  insti- 
tution at  the  beginning,  and  Pie  ordained  it  to  be  perpetual. 
It  is  not  good,  said  Jehovah,  that  the  Man  should  be  alone, 
wherefore  He  made  a  help-meet  for  him  ;  a  male  and  a  female 
made  He  them.  And  this  numerical  relation  of  the  sexes, 
which  no  science  can  control,  maintains  its  balance  in  succes- 
sive generations,  through  all  the  incidents  of  climate,  of  mi- 
gration, of  war ;  so  that  taking  the  Avorld  as  a  whole,  you 
hardly  find  in  adult  age  more  of  either  sex  than  will  suffice  to 
constitute  separate  and  independent  families  after  the  model 
of  the  first.  The  law  of  human  life,  and  the  appointments  of 
Providence  in  its  myriad  incidents,  concur  in  giving  to  the 
original  institution  of  marriage  a  perpetual  sanction.  The 
poet  represents  this  w^ondrous  adaptation  of  two  souls  in  the 
marriage  tie  as  "  perfect  music  set  to  noble  words." 

"  Self-reverent  each,  and  reverencing  eacli ; 
Distinct  in  individualities, 
But  like  each  other  even  as  those  who  love." 

The  relation  which  is  thus  clearly  founded  in  divine  reve- 
lation, and  in  those  physiological  laws  and  those  appointments 
of  Providence  that  constitute  the  fitness  of  things,  has  the 
best  possible  adaptations  for  the  education  of  mankind. 
Wherefore  the  prolonged  dependence  of  the  human  infant  ? 
Why  is  he  whom  God  has  constituted  the  lord  of  creation 
kept  for  years  in  a  condition  of  helpless  infancy,  while  a  few 
days  or  months  suffice  to  bring  to  maturity  the  offisj^ring  of 


MUTUAL  ADAPTATIONS  OF  THE   SEXES.         135 

inferior  animals  ?  W/iy  is  this  ?  Because  this  human  infant 
is  not  to  be  a  mere  creature  of  instinctsi,  but  a  being  of  reason, 
of  affection,  of  will,  to  act  under  moral  law  with  responsi- 
bility to  Man  and  to  God,  and  with  relations  to  the  Unseen, 
the  Infinite,  and  the  Eternal.  The  littleness  of  Man  in  his 
infancy  points  to  the  grandeur  of  his  future.  For  that  great- 
ness he  must  be  educated.  Principles  do  not  come  by  instinct, 
and  instinct  should  never  control  the  will.  Reason  and  the 
will  should  be  educated  by  the  guiding  hand  of  affection. 
All  that  the  brute  needs  of  a  parent  is  to  be  fed  till  its  animal 
strength  and  instincts  shall  enable  it  to  get  its  own  food. 
But  Man  is  to  move  upon  a  higher  stage.  He  belongs  to  a 
race  that  has  a  history.  His  birth  is  not  merely  a  numerical 
addition  to  the  race — it  is  a  continuation  of  its  history.  And 
as  history  links  him  with  the  Past,  so  destiny  links  him  to  the 
Future.  His  life  is  not  an  isolated  imit.  ITe  stands  in  the 
present  to  carry  forward  the  lessons  of  the  Past  into  the 
destinies  of  the  Future.  One  can  not  leaj:)  full-grown  to  such  a 
stature.  He  can  not  rise  to  it  by  instinct.  He  must  be  edu- 
cated for  it,  disciplined  to  its  high  argument.  His  very 
dependence  is  a  part  of  that  discipline ;  in  reverence,  in  obe- 
dience, in  submission,  in  trust,  in  love,  in  self-government,  in 
knowledge,  and  in  virtue.  Now,  for  this  education  the  Family 
is  provided,  and  only  in  the  Family  rightly  constituted  can 
this  be  fully  attained.  Dependent  infancy,  sympathetic  and 
imitative  childhood,  inquiring  and  confiding  youth,  these 
demand  the  tender,  loving,  watchful,  patient,  and  controlling 
nurture  of  the  Family.  Maternal  love — that  most  mysterious 
and  most  potent  of  the  forces  that  guide  and  control  our  being 
— is  the  only  power  upon  earth  that  can  fitly  educate  Man. 
God  has  given  to  the  mother  instincts  and  aftections  equal  to 
that  responsibility  ;  and  by  thus  matching  the  utter  weakness 
of  Man  in  infancy  with  the  correlative  stren<:>-th  of  Vv^oman's 


136  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

love,  He  again  sets  his  seal  to  the  primeval  law  of  marriage. 
For  outside  of  the  marriage  relation  even  the  instincts  of 
maternal  love  are  stifled.  Only  when  consecrated  to  virtue 
do  these  instincts  become  the  educators  of  the  race. 

In  every  aspect,  physical,  economical,  intellectual,  moral, 
the  Family  is  the  appointed  nursery  of  the  race  for  the  well- 
being  of  the  individual  and  the  progress  of  society.  Neatness, 
pohteness,  industry,  economy,  order,  punctuality,  aifection- 
ateness,  truth,  where  can  these  be  acquired  from  tutors  or 
from  books,  as  they  are  instilled  with  the  dews  of  daily  aifec- 
tion  in  the  household  and  warmed  with  the  sunshine  of  its 
love  ?  As  one  has  said,  "  Home-education  is  a  law  of  Nature. 
And  where  can  that  labor  of  love  be  found  more  minutely 
and  wisely  divided  than  between  the  father  and  the  mother, 
between  patience  and  power,  tenderness  and  authority,  the 
instinctive  love  of  offspring,  and  the  moral  regard  for  the 
excellence  and  well-being  of  that  offspring." 

Hence  it  is  that  the  Family,  as  originally  constituted  in 
Paradise,  is  the  only  true  basis  of  society.  No  theory  of  the 
social  compact  has  ever  been  devised  that  would  stand  the 
test  of  reason,  of  history,  or  of  natural  law.  The  whole  con- 
stitution of  the  world  is  against  such  a  theory.  By  that 
theory  men  existed  as  isolated  units,  till  their  common  wants 
or  fears,  or  the  aggressions  of  the  strong  upon  the  weak, 
brought  them  together  in  comi^act  communities.  But  trace 
the  stream  of  history  back  through  any  of  its  channels,  and 
you  fmd  society  always  emerging  from  the  Family.  The  first 
birth  into  the  Avorld  was  a  birth  into  society,  which  then  began 
in  the  bosom  of  the  Family.  Since  the  creation  of  Adam,  Man 
has  never  existed  in  the  world  as  an  isolated  unit.  It  is  a 
lav/  of  his  being  that  he  shall  enter  upon  his  existence  in  the 
social  state,  and  there  abide. 

In  the  Family,  Man  is  trained  to  reverence  for  just  and  law- 


THE  SOCIAL  COMPACT  A  FICTION.  137 

ful  authority ;  submission  to  government ;  obedience  to  law. 
In  the  Family,  one  learns  to  control  instinct  and  passion  by 
reason  and  aftection.  In  the  Family,  one  learns  to  respect  the 
rights  and  the 'feelings  of  others  as  equal  to  his  own.  The 
child  in  the  nursery  is  taught  the  rights  of  property,  and  the 
claims  of  gratitude  and  love.  Hence  the  Family  has  been 
aptly  styled  "  a  rehearsal  for  society ;  Avhere  inferiors  and 
superiors  of  every  kind  and  degree  mingle  and  co-operate — 
youth  and  age,  weakness  and  strength,  ignorance  and  knowl- 
edge, male  and  female,  affection  and  authority,  are  blended 
together  into  one  compact  society.  .  .  .  Every  coming 
relation  of  life,  every  future  form  of  duty,  and  every  subse- 
quent social  affection  are  seen  virtually  put  in  rehearsal  for 
the  more  public  scenes  of  after  life." 

A  favorite  theory  of  what  is  known  in  Europe  under  the 
names  of  Ked  Rej)ublicanism,  Socialism,  and  the  like,  is  that 
society  is  only  an  aggregation  of  individual  men,  and  that  its 
laws  and  customs  must  be  determined  by  the  wishes  of  the 
majority  of  these  individual  units  concerning  their  supposed 
interests  and  rights.  But  this  theory  provides  no  bond  of 
coherence  or  continuity  such  as  is  required  to  constitute 
society  j  its  imion  is  a  rope  of  •sand ;  self-interest  alone  keeps 
these  individual  atoms  together,  and  there  is  as  much  of 
repulsion  as  of  cohesion  in  mere  selfinterest.  What  sort  of 
society  these  units  of  individual  men  make  when  brought 
together  by  some  motive  of  self-interest  is  seen  in  every 
newly-opened  gold  region  or  mining  district,  where  men  con- 
gregate in  herds,  but  without  families. 

There  is  not  in  any  society  such  a  thing  to  be  found  as  this 
individual  unit.  Xo  man  exists  as  a  unit.  Everv  man  comes 
into  the  bosom  of  the  Family  as  his  first  step  into  life,  and 
there  is  put  at  school  for  membership  in  the  wider  family  of 
the  state.    Hence,  if  we  would  have  a  Community  presided 


138  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

over  by  justice,  maintaining  equal  laws,  guarding  the  individ- 
ual in  the  many,  and  all  as  one,  then  must  we  maintain  in- 
tact and  sacred  as  it  was  in  Eden  the  institution  of  the  Fam- 
ily. Lycurgus  sought  to  raise  a  warlike  race  .by  taking  the 
infant  from  its  parents  to  be  reared  in  the  gymnasium  as  a 
child  of  the  state.  Plato,  in  his  Republic,  advocates  a  system 
of  Free  Love,  abolishing  the  Family,  destroying  weakly  chil- 
dren, and  taking  the  strong  into  a  public  nursery,  where 
they  may  be  reared  without  natural  aifection.  A  society  of 
brutes  and  bullies,  a  government  of  gladiators  and  tyrants, 
would  spring  full-armed  from  the  bloody  ashes  of  the  Family. 

The  Family  is  the  proper  nursery  of  the  race  in  morality 
and  religion.  For  this  it  was  designed  by  the  Creator.  Here 
are  inculcated  those  principles  of  moral  government ;  here 
are  develo2:)ed  those  pure  and  generous  affections ;  here  are 
nurtured  those  immortal  hopes,  that  fit  the  growing  mind  to 
recognize  and  assume  relations  toward  that  heavenly  Father 
of  whose  authority  and  benignity  the  earthly  father  is  its 
daily  type.  The  Family  was  instituted  as  a  school  for  heaven, 
whose  perfect  symbol  is  the  Family  gathered  in  their  father's 
house. 

The  study  of  Woman's  primeval  relation  to  Man  and  the 
Family  w^ould  aid  in  the  solution  of  some  questions  concern- 
ing her  sphere  in  modern  society.  In  discussing  those  ques- 
tions, some  writers  overlook  entirely  the  fact  of  Sex,  which 
we  have  already  shown  to  be  fundamental,  not  simply  as  a 
physical  distinction,  but  in  its  social  and  moral  bearings.  The 
advocates  of  the  theory  of  the  individual  unit  of  society 
would  have  no  longer  women,  but  what  Count  Gasparin  has 
aptly  styled  '''-female  men ; "  in  the  struggle  for  technical 
equality  all  the  finer  distinctions  being  eflaced,  and  only  that 
remaining  which  Nature  has  indelibly  stamped  in  the  phys- 
ical constitution.     But  the  true  interest  of  society  demands 


WOMAN  MORE  THAN  A  FEMMEUOMME.         139 

that  Ave  should  assure  to  Woman  that  xwerorjative  of  honor  in 
domestic  and  social  life  which  we  have  in  part  gained  for 
her  by  redeeming  her  from  a  life  of  drudgery.*  While  labor 
is  Man's  primordial  necessity,  "  Woman^s  right  to  labor  "  is  a 
cry  full  of  evil  omen.  It  marks  the  deterioration  of  that 
manly  sentiment  which  has  hitherto  accorded  to  Woman  in 
this  Republic  a  position  of  honor  and  prerogative  unknown 
in  the  titled  society  of  the  old  world.  There  she  has  the 
*'  right  to  labor  " — as  shop-keeper,  stall- tender,  street-cleaner 
in  the  cities  and  towns  of  France,  and  as  a  peasant  in  the 
fields  ;  there  she  may  labor  at  the  oar  upon  the  canals  of  Hol- 
land ;  there  she  may  have  undisputed  right  to  labor  over  the 
vast  plains  of  Germany  and  the  steppes  of  Russia,  digging, 
hoeing,  ditching,  and  following  the  plow ;  there  she  has  the 
scavenger's  right  to  labor,  in  Switzerland,  Egypt,  S}Tia, 
gathering  with  her  hands  the  ordure  of  animals  for  tillage  or 
fuel;  there,  in  Spain  and  Italy,  she  has  the  right  to  trudge 
weary  miles  after  the  cattle  as  they  browse  in  the  scorching 
heat  or  the  pelting  storm,  or  to  burden  her  head  with  loads 
of  wood  or  grain  fit  for  the  back  of  a  camel^  It  shames  me 
that,  in  this  free  Republic,  where  the  sanctity  of  Womanhood 
has  been  guarded  with  a  jealousy  that  the  age  of  chivalry 
never  knew,  we  are  beginning  to  look  upon  Woman  as  a  crea- 
ture doomed  to  labor.  Her  "  right  to  labor  "  is  wide  as  the 
world,  if  she  covet  that.  Let  her  go  forth  to  labor,  if  she 
will,  and  produce  hands  and  feet  and  features  of  correspond- 
ing coarseness  ;  but  in  quitting  the  gentle  occuj^ations  of  the 
household,  that  she  may  compete  with  Man  in  every  form  of 
labor,  she  may  assert  a  muscular  right,  with  which  she  is  but 
imperfectly  endowed,  at  cost  of  a  spiritual  prerogative  vrhich  is 


*  The  author  reproduces  here  a  section  of  his  oration  before  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa 
Society  in  Yale  College,  published  in  the  New  Englander  for  January,  1SG9. 


140  MAN:  m  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

hers  by  NTature  and  by  tbe  concession  of  all  noble  men.  That 
daily  toil  for  daily  bread  which  is  Man's  inheiitance  through 
the  fall,  was  not  laid  upon  Woman  at  the  first ;  and  it  is  no 
social  enfranchisement,  but  a  hardship  imposed  by  a  false 
condition  of  society,  that  would  put  it  upon  her  now.  Let 
Woman  use  her  finer  faculties  in  education,  art,  science,  man- 
ners, the  humanities;  let  her  win  here  the  place  of  prefer- 
ment ;  and  when  she  must  perform  manual  labor  for  subsist- 
ence, let  her  be  encouraged,  respected,  and  remunerated  in 
this  also,  as  one  bravely  meeting -a  hard  lot;  but  let  us  not 
dignify  with  the  name  of  "  right"  a  physical  necessity  that 
marks  an  abnormal  condition  of  society.  Sir  Samuel  Baker 
informs  us  that  in  Latooka  "  women  are  so  far  appreciated  as 
they  are  valuable  animals.  They  grind  the  corn,  fetch  the 
water,  gather  firewood,  cement  the  floors,  cook  the  food,  and 
propagate  the  race;  but  there  is  no  such  thing  as  love." 
Shall  we  go  back  upon  our  civihzation,  back  upon  our  Chris- 
tianity, to  the  White  Nile  theory  of  Woman's  labor  ?  Such 
would  be  the  result  to  Woman  of  that  theory  of  "  rights " 
which  makes  her  equality  with  Man  a  reason  for  her  "  doing 
everything  that  Man  now  does." 

The  equality  of  the  sexes  is  not  same?iess  of  endowments 
and  adaptations,  but  equality  with  differentia.  The  attri- 
butes of  sex  belong  to  the  soul  as  well  as  to  the  body,  so  that 
in  their  intellectual  and  •spiritual  natures,  much  as  they  pos- 
sess in  common,  the  ]\Ian  and  the  Woman  are  also  the  comple- 
ment each  of  the  other  ;  and  in  the  distribution  of  these  com- 
plementary qualities  Woman  certainly  has  no  cause  to  envy 
her  partner.  Her  delicate  and  beautiful  presence,  her  graces 
and  charms  of  person  and  manner,  her  intuitive  affinities  for 
the  true,  the  pure,  and  the  good,  her  divine  faculty  of  counsel, 
her  all-pervading,  all-controlling  influence — these  are  preroga- 
lives  Avhich  Woman  has  no  right  to  vacate  by  reducing  herself 


WOMAN'S  SEX  HER  SPIRITUAL  TREROGATIVE.   lil 

to  a  mere  tool  of  productive  industry,  a  uumeriCal  factor  of 
political  economy.  Physiology  demonstrates  that  Woman  is 
not  so  constituted  as  to  compete  with  Man  in  labor,  since 
there  is  an  appreciable  difference  between  the  two  sexes  in 
the  proportion  of  red-blood-corpuscles,  upon  which  depend 
both  "  vital  activity  and  the  capacity  for  sustained  exertion,^"* 
whether  of  muscle  or  of  the  brain.*  But  though  Woman  is 
thus  inferior  to  Man  in  native  vital  force,  a  kindly  Nature  has 
imparted  to  her  a  more  subtile  vivacity  and  grace,  showing 
that  hers  are  the  beautiful  ministries  of  life,  and  Man's  its 
rugged  toil ;  and  it  is  this  prerogative  of  ^Yomanhood  that 
she  would  sacrifice  by  attempting  the  unequal  strife  and  bur- 
den of  the  "  working-day  world." 

Only  at  the  cost  of  this  same  prerogative — the  prerogative 
of  ruhng  in  society  through  the  homage  of  valor  to  grace,  of 
strength  to  refinement,  of  muscle  to  heart — only  by  sacrificing 
this  could  Woman  enter  into  the  arena  of  political  strife.    The 
delicate  laws  of  her  physical  organization,  the  more  subtile 
and  beautiful  laws  of  her  social  and  moral  influence  alike  for- 
bid this  uncrowning  of  her  Womanhood.     One  who  would 
claim  the  riglit  of  political  action  must  be  equal  to  serving  tho 
state  in  its  demands  as  a  civil  organization.     Here,  emphati- 
cally, rights  and  duties  must  be  correlative.     Since  suflVage 
carries  not  simply  the  act  of  voting  but  the  function  of  ruling 
as  well — not  only  declaring  one's  preference  in  political  affiirs, 
but  actually  governing  the  whole  community — this  can  not  be 
the  natural  right  of  any  individual,  but  is  a  privilege  to  be 
accorded  by  society — by  the  Body  Politic  findmg   itself  in 
power — in  view  of  one's  competence  to  serve  the  state  in  its 


*  See  Carpenters  "  Principles  of  Ilnraan  Physiology,"'  sixMi  London  edition,  pages 
lOSandlOS.  "The  maxima  iu  the  female  do  not  pass  much  higher  than  the  mean 
of  the  male,  while  her  minima  fall  far  below  his ;  on  the  other  hand,  the  maxima 
of  the  malo  rise  far  higher  than  those  of  the  female,  while  his  minima  scarcely  de- 
scend below  her  tyiean.'''' 


142  MAN:  IN  GI;NESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

rightful  requirements,  and  witli  a  wise  and  impartial  consid- 
eration of  the  needs  and  welfare  of  the  entire  common- 
wealth. To  enter  political  life  argues  capacity  for  civil  duty ; 
capacity  to  serve  the  state  in  the  jury-box,  in  the  police,  in 
the  camp,  in  the  battle-field,  in  port-surveys  and  defenses,  in 
the  revenue  service,  in  a  routine  of  ofiicial  duties  that  suffer 
no  intermission ;  and  Woman  can  not  do  this,  can  not  trust 
herself  to  undertake  the  service  for  which  she  is  physically 
incapacitated,  can  not  be  trusted  with  it  with  safety  to  the 
commonwealth.  Witness,  for  instance,  the  protracted  and 
exhausting  session  of  the  Senate  upon  the  impeachment  of  the 
President !  If  she  would  fulfill  the  sacred  functions  of  her 
nature,  she  can  not  accept  the  responsibilities  of  the  public 
service,  for  the  divine  laws  of  physiology,  and  the  divine 
constitution  of  the  family,  as  the  perpetual  source  of  human 
society,  can  never  be  set  aside.  Either  the  vast  majority  of 
women  must  become  wives  and  mothers,  or  society  and  the 
state  must  cease  to  be.  But  while  Woman  shall  continue  to 
fulfill  for  society  that  most  serviceable,  most  honorable,  and 
most  sacred  ofiice  of  Maternity,  which  is  hers  by  divine  right, 
her  very  nature  must  forbid  her  employment  in  the  public 
service  of  the  state. 

Reverting  for  a  moment  to  the  thought  that,  in  this  coun- 
try, to  vote  is  to  participate  directly  in  the  potoer  of  governing^ 
I  maintain  that  the  right  to  vote  must  rest  upon  ability  to 
discharge  the  duties  of  citizenship)  in  the  service  of  society  as 
a  civil  organization.  This  is  the  only  logical  foundation  upon 
which  the  right  of  suffrage  can  be  based.  To  base  it  upon 
taxation  is  to  narrow  all  the  great  concerns  of  society  down 
to  the  one  point  of  mercenary  interest.  One  may  receive  the 
full  value  of  his  taxes  in  public  order  and  security,  without 
being  entitled  to  vote  by  reason  of  his  assessment ;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  taxes  may  be  most  unjust  and  oppressive,  and 


WOMAN  DISQUALIFIED  BY  NATURE.  143 

the  public  order  and  safety  most  lax,  where  everybody  votes, 
as  in  New  York,  and  the  representatives  of  the  majority  levy 
upon  the  property  of  the  minority  for  their  own  schemes  of 
plunder.  To  base  the  right  to  vote  upon  the  abstract  equal- 
ity of  individuals  is  to  confound  natural  and  personal  rights 
with  political  i')owers ;  but  voting  is  a  poiGcr  in  the  state 
which  no  one  can  inherit  by  nature.  If  Man  is  endowed  by 
Nature  with  the  right  to  vote,  if  this  is  a  right  that  inheres  in 
humanity  as  such,  then  by  what  authority  can  minors  and 
paupers  be  excluded  from  the  polls,  or  a  term  of  naturaliza- 
tion or  a  degree  of  education  be  required  for  admission  to 
suffrage  ?  In  the  last  analysis,  the  Political  Society  must 
determine  for  itself  in  whom  this  power  of  control  over  public 
affairs  shall  be  vested. 

Is  it  asked  whence  has  Society  this  right  ?     The  answer  is 
simply  that  the  Body  Politic  which  possesses  the  power  to 
rule,  must  rule  uj^on  conditions  of  its  own  making  ;  it  is  bound 
to  make   these   conditions  just   and  fair  in  view  of  aU  the 
interests  of  society,  but  the  remedy  for  injustice  can  not  be 
found  in  admitting  everybody  indiscriminately  to  the  function 
of  ruling  as  a  "  natural  right."     The  same  power  in  society 
which  regulates  suffrage  in  the  case  of  minors,  paupers,  and 
others,  can  attach  to  suffrage  such  conditions  and  hmitations 
as  the  general  good  may  require.     Hence  the  natural  equality 
of  the  sexes  has  no  bearing  upon  the  question  of  suffrage, 
which  rests  on  constitutional  and  other  qualifications  for  the 
service  of  society  as  a  civil  organization.     That  the  capacity 
for  such  service  is  denied  to  Woman  is  not  a  fiction  of  civil 
law  but  a  fact  of  physiology,  v>'hich  no  legislation  can  ever 
change.     The  notion  that  the  equality  of  the  sexes  requires 
the  equal  distribution  and  exercise  of  all   civil,   social,  and 
personal  functions  and  rights,  leads  to  absurdities  the  most 
grotesque  and  revolting. 


144:  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

But  we  are  now  concerned,  not  so  much  with  the  abstract 
question  of  Woman's  entering  into  public  life,  as  with  the  in- 
fluence of  this  upon  the  tone  of  society  in  a  republican  govern- 
ment. The  tone  of  national  life,  the  very  continuance  of  the 
nation,  depends  upon  the  position  of  Woman  more  than  upon 
any  other  single  fact ;  and  it  has  happened  to  Woman  thus  far 
in  the  constitution  of  American  society,  to  be  a  conservative, 
elevating,  purifying  power,  by  virtue  of  the  prerogative 
accorded  her  of  ruling  by  character  and  influence  apart  from 
the  contest  of  numbers.  In  a  country  which  has  no  tradi- 
tions of  feudalism  and  no  forms  of  society  nor  government  to 
inspire  sentiments  of  veneration  and  loyalty,  the  spirit  of 
chivalry — "  that  nurse  of  manly  sentiment  and  heroic  enter- 
prise"— has  found  its  expression  in  loyalty  to  Woman.  This 
sentiment,  ennobling  and  refining  a  democratic  people,  is  of 
more  value  to  the  Republic  than  all  the  balances  of  the  con. 
stitution.  It  belongs  to  the  divine  harmony  of  society ;  for 
the  Creator  has  intrusted  Woman  to  the  honor  of  Man  in  the 
family  and  the  state,  for  the  culture  of  the  stronger  through 
care  and  consideration  for  the  Aveaker.  Man  looks  up  to 
Woman  with  the  homage  that  chivalry  renders  to  the  delicate, 
the  beautiful,  the  spiritual,  the  true. 

But  if  Woman,  disdaining  her  loyal  defender,  shall  enter  the 
lists  to  contend  with  Man  by  sheer  force  of  numbers,  clamor- 
ing for  rights,  he  will  say  to  her,  "  Stand  upon  your  own 
strength  and  fight  your  OAvn  battles,  expecting  neither  loyalty 
nor  chivalry  from  me."  An  editor,  distinguished  as  much  for 
his  courtesy  as  for  his  generous  sympathy  with  all  enlight- 
ened reforms,  was  besought  by  a  champion  of  Woman's  voting 
to  advocate  her  cause.  To  her  repeated  demands  of  "  right," 
he  replied  with  quiet  and  cogent  argument ;  but  with  such 
i:)ertinacity  did  she  pursue  him  that  he  said  to  her  at  last, 
*'  Madam,  I  fear  if  you  come  to  me  agam  in  this  manner,  I 


WOMAN  RULES  BY  SPIRITUAL  PREROGATIVES.     145 

shall  be  compelled  to  answer  you  as  if  you  were  a  Man  !  " 
That  saved  him  further  intrusion,  and  opened  her  eyes  to  the 
possible  future  of  Woman,  should  she  gain  the  right  of  being 
talked  to  like  a  Man !  Sad  would  be  the  social  state  in  which 
men  would  feel  challenged  by  the  position  of  "Woman  to  deal 
with  her  on  public  questions  as  they  deal  with  one  another. 

Even  if  the  ballot  could  raise  Woman  politically,  the  nation 
can  not  afford  so  to  degrade  its  men  by  divesting  them  of  the 
sentiments  of  delicacy,  of  honor,  of  loyalty — in  a  word,  of 
chivalry,  and  arraying  .the  sexes  in  the  contest  of  numbers. 
Woman  can  not  hope  to  act  for  herself  in  public  life,  and  still 
receive  the  honorable  consideration  now  accorded  to  the  deli- 
cacy of  her  sex.  She  must  choose  between  the  two ;  and  if 
she  shaU  elect  the  latter,  she  will  inevitably  find  that  in  what 
direction  soever  she  forces  herself  'outside  the  sphere  of  deli- 
cate and  chivalrous  regard  into  the  contention  of  labors  and  of 
numbers,  she  is  taking  a  step  toward  her  own  degradation. 
If  she  can  brave  the  opprobrium,  society  can  not  risk  the  con- 
sequences. 

It  is  assumed  that  Woman  will  bring  to  the  polls  a  soothing 
element  and  improve  the  moral  results  of  elections.  On  the 
contrary,  her  greater  intensity  of  feeling  for  2^^^'sons  would 
bring  a  keener  acrimony  into  our  poUtical  campaigns.  We 
can  not  forget  how  the  Women  of  the  South  incited  the  rebel- 
lion and  inflamed  its  hatred  and  atrocity ;  nor  that  Woman 
produced  the  worst  monstrosities  of  the  French  revolution ; 
nor  can  we  shut  our  eyes  to  the  fact  that  in  great  cities  the 
JBridgets  would  roll  up  the  majorities  of  the  demagogues,  and 
that  Washington  would  have  its  Mainteuons  and  Pompadoui'S 
to  add  their  intrigues  to  its  political  corruptions.  The  history 
of  church  elections  in  which  Abbesses  had  a  voice,  is  a  warn- 
ing here.  But  the  calamity  to  be  shunned  is  that  Men,  ceas- 
ing to  respect  and  honor  Women  in  their  prerogative  of  influ- 


146  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

ence,  shall  fear  or  court  them  as  an  element  of  nmnerical 
power ! — for  when  the  spirit  of  chivalry  with  its  generous 
loyalty  to  sex  is  gone,  the  glory  of  the  Republic  will  be 
extinguished  forever. 

The  elevation  of  the  Poor  requires  that  the  institution  of 
the  Family  be  established  and  maintained  among  them  in  its 
original  sanctity.  The  problem  of  pauperism  in  great  cities 
weighs  more  and  more  upon  the  reflective  and  philanthropic. 
Many  are  the  expedients  of  benevolence  for  reheving  the 
poor  without  adding  to  their  degradation,  yet  it  is  weU-nigh 
impossible  to  administer  charitable  reUef  for  any  considerable 
period  of  time  without  in  the  very  act  degrading  the  recipi- 
ent. As  yet  many  of  the  plans  of  benevolence  have  been 
only  expedients  ;  they  do  not  reach  the  seat  of  pauperism  in 
society,  and  therefore  accomplish  little  for  its  cure.  A  per- 
fect remedy  may  not  be  j^ossible ;  but  certain  it  is  that 
alms-giving,  whether  occasional  or  systematic,  and  the  whole 
operation  of  charity,  touches  only  upon  the  surface  of  this 
monstrous  evil,  and,  as  before  hinted,  tends  to  perpetuate  if 
not  to  aggravate  that  which  it  seeks  for  the  moment  to  re- 
lieve. Schools  of  industry  begin  at  a  deeper  stratum  than 
mere  charitable  rehef,  and  w^orking  upward  from  this  lower 
level  they  tend  to  elevate  those  who  come  under  their  influ- 
ence. But  these  do  not  go  down  to  the  very  foundation  of 
the  evil  with  which  they  attempt  to  cope.  Asylums  and  other 
institutions  for  training  children  away  from  their  parents  are 
but  expedients  to  lessen  the  evil  in  the  next  generation. 
They  do  not  exterminate  its  roots.  Religious  visitation, 
tract  and  Bible  distribution,  reach  here  and  there  an  indi- 
vidual, but  how  little  impression  do  these  make  upon  the 
enormous  mass  of  physical  misery !  Nay,  it  is  almost  hope- 
less to  remedy  physical  misery  by  moral  means,  or  to  elevate 
the  moral  feeling  and  condition  of  those  who  are  perpetually 


now  TO  ELEVATE  THE  POOR.        147 

dragged  down  by  physical  necessities.  What  hope  is  there 
of  the  conversion  of  one  amid  such  impure  and  loathsome 
surroundings?  Bring  some  tenant  of  a  cellar  or  garret, 
reeking  with  filth,  drunkenness,  and  loathsomeness,  into  the 
house  of  God ;  let  his  mind  be  aroused  to  some  idea  of  his 
moral  nature  and  religious  needs  ;  kindle  within  him  a  desire 
for  a  higher  life, — then  send  him  back  to  kennel  for  the  week 
with  all  that  wretchedness  and  infamy,  and  what  hope  is  there 
of  permanent  good?  How  soon  wiU  the  moral  light,  so 
faintly  kindled  within  him,  be  quenched  again  in  physical 
wretchedness?  We  must  resuscitate  the  Family;  we  must 
encourage  the  poor  to  form  their  independent  homes  in 
cleanliness  and  privacy ;  we  must  erect  suitable  buildings  for 
their  accommodation  at  moderate  rents  ;  we  must  suj)ple- 
ment  these  with  the  lodging-house,  the  wash-house,  and  other 
institutions  that  will  answer  the  purposes  of  a  home  for  the 
lowest  stages  of  humanity ;  in  one  word,  we  must  keep  up  at 
every  point  the  associations  and  claims  of  the  Family,  before 
we  can  hope  for  a  radical  change  in  society.  The  doctrines  of 
Socialism  do  not  meet  the  case ;  there  is  enough  of  commu- 
nity now,  far  too  much  of  it,  among  the  degraded  poor.  We 
need  the  restoring,  the  elevating  power  of  family  sanctity  as 
at  the  first.  To  this  end  Christian  philanthropy  must  direct 
itself,  or  with  the  growth  of  wealth  and  luxury  on  the  one 
hand,  we  shall  see  upon  the  other  a  corresponding  degrada- 
tion of  the  poor. 

How  wonderful  the  love  and  care  of  God  for  Man  as  mani- 
fested in  the  first  provisions  made  for  the  blessedness  and 
sanctity  of  the  human  race  I  This  Biblical  narrative  presents 
to  us  something  higher  and  better  than  physical  laws.  It  is 
by  no  means  umnindful  of  the  laws  of  Nature.  It  sets  before 
us  in  sublime  array  the  course  of  Nature,  with  a  comprehen- 
sive brevity  that  allows  for  and  may  include  all  known  phys- 


14:8  MAN:  IN  GENESIS  AND  IN  GEOLOGY. 

ical  laws  and  forces  in  the  wide  extent  of  their  operation. 
Whatever  has  been  brought  to  light  by  scientific  investiga- 
tion in  the  records  of  the  globe  is  ami^ly  provided  for  in  the 
terms  and  conditions  of  this  narrative.  The  successive  acts  of 
creation  here  described  may  all  have  gone  forward  by  that 
uniformity  of  procedure  which  we  characterize  by  the  name 
Law,  which,  after  all,  is  but  one  mode  of  describing  certain 
actions  or  effects  of  the  Divine  will. 

This  narrative,  therefore,  gives  to  us  all  that  Science  gives, 
— ^but  more.  Rising  above  the  j^lane  of  physical  agencies, 
which  are  throughout  implied,  it  directs  us,  as  we  have  seen, 
to  the  First  Great  Cause,  the  intelligent,  spiritual  Cause,  and 
thus  brings  us  to  the  highest  point  of  metaphysical  concep- 
tion, the  point  toward  which  all  investigation  in  the  sphere 
of  physical  Science  at  length  directs  us,  but  which  physical 
Science,  as  such,  can  not  definitely  determine.  Here,  where 
metaphysics  has  essayed  its  sublimest  attempts  at  discovery, 
this  narrative  makes  to  us  the  simple  revelation  of  the  one  per- 
sonal God.  But  it  does  not  rest  here.  Metaphysics  may 
conduct  to  the  conception  of  a  spiritual  Being,  absolute  in  His 
intelligence,  infinite  in  His  nature,  almighty  in  His  power. 
The  narrative  gives  us  this,  and  more  ;  for  as  soon  as  it  intro- 
duces this  Creator  in  relation  to  Man,  it  j^resents  Him  in  the 
aspect  of  a  Father.  All  through  the  course  of  the  creation, 
at  intervals  it  had  pictured  the  Creator  himself  as  dehghting 
in  His  works,  as  having  a  benevolent  joy  in  the  perfection  of 
that  which  He  had  brought  into  being.  He  looked  upon  that 
which  He  had  made,  and  saw  that  it  was  good.  But  in  Man 
the  narrative  presents  the  Creator  as  the  Father  producing  a 
child  in  His  own  image,  after  His  likeness  ;  and  then  with  a 
Father's  thoughtful  care,  providing  for  every  want  of  his 
compound  nature,  for  his  physical  comfort  and  enjoyment,  for 
the  gratification  of  his  tastes  and  his  sense  of  beauty ;  for  his 


THE  BIBLICAL  VIEWS  OF  GOD.  149 

affections  and  his  social  nature  through  the  medium  of  the 
Family,  and  of  that  society  which  must  grow  out  of  the  Family ; 
and  for  his  spiritual  communing  with  Himself,  the  Father  of 
spirits,  in  that  beatific  intercourse  which  was  the  privilege 
and  joy  of  Man  at  the  beginning. 

In  aU  these  arrangements,  designed  to  be  perpetual,  we  be- 
hold the  love  and  the  care  of  God.  "Wherever  these  arrange- 
ments have  failed  of  their  beneficent  purposes,  it  has  been 
solely  through  the  perversity  of  Man  ;  and  just  so  far  as  Man 
shall  return  to  the  original  design  of  the  Creator,  in  the  insti- 
tutions of  the  Family  and  of  the  Sabbath,  in  the  maintenance 
of  pure  domestic  love  and  pure  spiritual  worship,  will  human 
society  be  advanced  in  integrity  and  blessedness,  and  once 
more  approximate  to  that  Paradise  which  was  the  glory  of  its 
beginning,  the  tradition  of  which  fills  the  broad  pages  of  his- 
tory, and  the  realization  of  which  in  the  hereafter  will  be  that 

golden  age  toward  w^hich  all  poetry  and  prophecy  direct  our 
hopes. 


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